


Some Wonderful Day

by LottieHolmes



Category: Ghost Hunt
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-07-10
Updated: 2015-12-24
Packaged: 2018-04-08 16:06:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 28,402
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4311648
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LottieHolmes/pseuds/LottieHolmes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>AU. Naru ends up getting sent to a Japanese high school for an unknown reason and meets Mai who is beginning to develop her psychic abilities. Together they investigate the mysteries of the school together and end up getting closer in the process.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Some Wonderful Day:**

**Summary:** AU. Naru ends up getting sent to a Japanese high school for an unknown reason and meets Mai who is beginning to develop her psychic abilities. Together they investigate the mysteries of the school together and end up getting closer in the process.

* * *

**Chapter 1:**

Mai woke up in the morning with the feeling that something was going to happen at school that day. She knew she had had a dream before she had been jolted out of sleep by her alarm. She was still feeling a tingling and pleasant feeling when she woke so she knew today was going to be a good day. If she woke from a dream feeling nervous and strained, it usually meant that there was going to be a surprise test in one of her lessons.

She got ready for school with a light feeling in her heart. Perhaps she would get a good offer at the supermarket after school again. Mai was always happy to save money as she lived alone.

When she arrived at school and made her way to her classroom she found the likely source of the feeling that she had woken up with. Her two best friends were engaged in gossip about the transfer student when she sat down in her seat and unpacked her bag.

"Apparently he comes from some country in Europe," Keiko was saying.

Michiru also had information to share. "Someone who was in the teacher's office earlier claimed that he is really hot."

Upon hearing that Mai smiled and joined the conversation. "I remember someone said that about another transfer student and everyone ended up being disappointed."

"That is true," Michiru acknowledged. "We shall know the truth when homeroom starts."

Their homeroom teacher was a strict older man that didn't take any nonsense from anyone and had no sense of timing as he waited right until the end of homeroom to introduce the transfer student. Mai could hear a lot of people hold their breath as he walked in and she could see why.

He was very attractive with smooth raven black hair and azure blue eyes. Mai found the cold look in his eyes off putting though. She decided that he would look better if he smiled.

The new student wrote his name on the blackboard and Mai raised her eyebrows when she saw that it was a Japanese name. The rumour about him being from another country seemed to be false rather than the other rumour about his attractiveness.

"My name is Kazuya Shibuya. It is nice to meet you all," he said in a tone that indicated he was feeling the direct opposite. "Please treat me well."

Clearly no one else caught that as the rest of the class smiled and there were whispers about how hot and polite he was.

A muscle twitched in Naru's jaw as he heard all the whispers and observed the attitudes of his new classmates. What was he doing in a class of overexcited morons that were fawning over his good looks? It was all Gene's fault. To get him back for something he had done, Gene had convinced his parents to send him to high school. He already had a PhD for crying out loud, he certainly didn't need to attend school. He was Dr. Oliver Davis, or rather he had been, he was now Kazuya Shibuya, yet another school student in a gakuran. The only difference was that he looked much better in his gakuran than anyone else.

He became aware that the teacher was discussing his seating options. There were three unoccupied desks in the classroom. Two were next to girls that were clearly violently blushing over the prospect of sitting next to him and the other was next to the only girl in the class that didn't look that interested in him. She had short brown hair and caramel eyes and a detached expression on her face. Naru was immediately intrigued by her.

He didn't mind the idea of sitting next to her and if the teacher had any sense he would seat him next to her and not the other girls as they would be too distracted by his beauty to work properly.

"You can sit next to Taniyama-san," the teacher said and pointed to the brunette.

Naru nodded and sat down in the seat next to Taniyama who turned her head to stare at him silently. His next hurdle was working out what to do with his school bag. He glanced at her desk and noticed that her bag was on a hook at the side. In England students simply dumped their bags on the floor. He hung his there and refocused on the teacher who was now packing up and leaving the room.

A look at his timetable revealed that he had Maths first followed by Japanese and English. The English lessons sounded like a chance to demonstrate his fluency whilst Japanese sounded like torture as he hadn't learnt a great amount of Kanji and his guardian in Japan was Chinese.

The people around him took the opportunity of the teacher absence to question him. He was treated to a dizzying array of questions.

"Do you have a girlfriend?"

"Where are you from?"

"What clubs are you interested in joining?"

"Where can I get skin like yours?"

Naru found the deluge of questions horrifying. Queries about his origin and his looks were to be expected, but he had forgotten about after school clubs and about his relationship status. If Gene was here he would be laughing hysterically at the idea of him joining a sports club or him being surrounded by lovelorn girls.

He took a deep breath and came up with an answer to prevent any further questions on similar subjects.

"I don't have a girlfriend, neither am I interested in having one. I was born with this skin and I detest the idea of staying after school."

Deliberately he neglected to answer the question about where he was from as if he revealed it he would be surrounded by even more people asking questions and he would end up being extremely rude to everyone to get away from them. He had a feeling that he would not be allowed to return to England unless he made at least one friend. His mother had always wanted him to make friends and had been disappointed when he scared away all the other children at primary school.

The Maths teacher entered the classroom, effectively ending all conversation and everyone returned to their desks. Naru sighed in relief and caught the eye of Taniyama who had been looking amused the entire time he had been surrounded.

The content of the Maths lesson was simple to Naru as he had studied statistics a few years ago so he barely took any notes and streamed through all of the questions. He smiled slightly when he noticed that the girl next to him was struggling through the questions. Whilst he was watching her struggle, she happened to look up at him. Her eyes narrowed when she saw that he had finished and was looking too pleased with himself.

"Having trouble?" he whispered, extremely enjoying himself.

"No!" she hissed back. "Look around, everyone else is stuck on the same question."

Naru checked and verified she was right. Taniyama wasn't as slow as she seemed, he was just ahead of the whole class in ability and had only focused on her.

"I can tell you the answer if you like," he offered, entirely expecting her to get annoyed with him and refuse the offer which she did.

"Stop being so smug, Shibuya."

Taniyama got a small measure of revenge in the next lesson, Japanese as Naru had trouble reading aloud from the book the class were working on. She kindly offered him help and went through some of the Kanji with him when they had to work in pairs. He was surprised that she hadn't offered to help him in a condescending way like he had done to her. He recognised that type, a selfless girl that put grudges aside in order to help. Briefly he wondered why she had become that way, then he realised how peculiar his thoughts had become and paid attention to the Kanji that was being explained.

As a result of her teaching he gave her a little assistance in English as she wasn't that good at pronouncing or understanding words. Or that was his opinion, Mai had thought he had been snarky about her accent and looked down on her whenever she tried to say a word aloud.

Mai was glad when lunchtime rolled round as it meant she could be free from Kazuya Shibuya's smirks and condescending glances. Her happy feeling from the morning was completely gone. Perhaps it had nothing to do with the transfer student and instead she would get a good bargain at the supermarket later on. She sat with Keiko and Michiru to eat her bento whilst a majority of the class crowded around the transfer student. The expression on his face looked like he was enjoying the attention whilst detesting it at the same time.

"You and Shibuya-kun looked friendly this morning," Keiko commented.

Mai groaned, reminded that some girls in high school tended to stake a claim on a good looking boy and victimise any girl that got close to him. She hoped that there weren't any girls like that in her class.

"If friendly means condescending and snarky."

"You might not have to put up with it for much longer, he will probably find a new girl to tease," Michiru suggested. "He is popular enough already."

"It's because he has a mysterious aura," Keiko said dreamily. "He's like the mysterious transfer student in books."

"Why are the boys surrounding him then?" Michiru pointed.

"They're probably trying to recruit him to join their clubs," Mai predicted. "I guess they didn't get the message earlier when he said that he had no interest in after school clubs."

"I can't imagine him joining our club," Keiko giggled. "After school horror stories. We only have three members and we're all girls."

Mai tried to picture Kazuya Shibuya joining them in a darkened classroom with only torches for light, telling ghost stories. She did find it a surprisingly believable picture.

On the other side of the classroom Naru was struggling to get the message across that he really wasn't going to join any clubs. It was evident that he was only wanted as eye candy to attract new members. So far he had been offered a place in all the sports clubs, the chess club which had been appealing for a few seconds before he realised there would be no one on his level and a variety of niche interest clubs.

"I like going home straight after school," he repeated for the fifth time.

One female classmate who had been trying to recruit him for the newspaper club glared.

"I suppose you would prefer to join Taniyama-san's silly ghost story club that join a proper club."

Naru was about to repeat that he really did not want to join  _any_ club when her words sunk in. High school would be much better if he got to do something related to the supernatural. There was a chance that he might get to solve some cases. He called over to Mai:

"Taniyama-san, I will join your club."

* * *

**A/N: A Gakuran is what male high school students wear in some schools.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Some Wonderful Day:**

**Chapter 2:**

Mai didn't get a chance to speak to Naru properly until the end of the day. He was infuriatingly annoying in their afternoon lessons causing her to think that he could be joking about joining their club. She found him waiting outside in the corridor with Keiko and Michiru when she left the classroom.

"Mai-chan, he's serious about joining," Michiru immediately told her.

"Did you explain that we aren't a proper club and that we don't get any funding?"

Michiru nodded. "He still wants to join."

Mai switched her attention to Kazuya Shibuya. "Shibuya-san, are you completely sure that you want to join? You could join a more proper club if you want."

"I want to join your club and I'm serious. What days do you meet on?" he answered.

"Monday, Wednesday and Friday in the audiovisual room," Keiko informed him. "Today is Tuesday so we aren't doing it today. Mai has to do something and we need time to prepare stories."

Mai checked her watch and remembered that she had better things to do than deduce Kazuya Shibuya's motives for joining their club. She said good bye and hurried off to the supermarket.

"Where is she going?" Naru asked curiously.

"Shopping. She lives alone so she can't forget to do it," Keiko explained.

Naru recalled that unlike in England, students were allowed to live by themselves in Japan. As his mother worried about him too much and had a fear that his PK would get out of control, she sent a Japanese speaking member of SPR with him to keep an eye on him. Despite her worries she had still sent him to Japan though. Perhaps if he mentioned to her that he had joined a club, she would explain her reasons - it had been another motive for him to join

"Her parents died when she was young so she has to look after herself," Michiru added. "Despite everything she is still a kind and cheerful person."

He felt an ounce of sympathy towards her as he was in a similar position, only he and Gene had ended up in an orphanage before being adopted by their current foster parents.

"I see."

His guardian, Lin was waiting to pick him up in a black van outside the school. Conversations between Lin and Naru were extremely limited most of the time unless they were working on a case.

"Luella called earlier and she wants to hear from you as soon as possible," Lin said the moment Naru buckled his seatbelt.

"As expected," Naru sighed. "Has Gene made any contact?"

"No," Lin replied shortly. "Did you have a fight before you left?"

"It was a light disagreement because he was refusing to tell me important information."

They didn't speak again until they reached the apartment they were renting and Lin handed Naru the phone, reminding him to call his mother. He dialled the number and his mother eagerly picked up on the first ring.

"Noll, how did your first day of school go? Was it has bad as you expected?"

He thought back to the events of his first day.

"It was not too terrible," he said truthfully. "I joined a club."

"Really?" his mother didn't sound as surprised as he had been expecting. "That's good. It's not a sports club is it?"

"Mum, of course it is not. I would never join anything like that willingly. You know what my stamina is like."

He deposited his bag which was full of homework on the floor as he spoke and boiled the kettle.

"I never expected anything different. How many girls are in the club?" she asked.

"Three. It's an all girls club."

That would have been extremely off-putting under normal circumstances, but allowances had to be made if he wanted to do something related to his favourite subject.

"That's interesting," the tone of her voice was strange. "Do you think you could end up liking any of them?"

"Mum," he groaned. "You know my opinion on that matter. If I did, would I be able to return home?"

The kettle finished boiling and he prepared tea with one hand. For the moment they were living on green tea until he or Lin found somewhere that stocked decent English tea.

"You will be permitted to return home when I say so," she replied firmly. "It's for your own good."

Naru sensed she wasn't going to yield on the matter for now and changed the subject. He would wait until her guard was down to attack.

"Can I speak to Gene?"

His mother sounded very cautious when she answered. "He is somewhere with Madoka at the moment. If that's all, I will leave you to the rest of your day."

She hung up before he could say anything and Naru sighed. When was he going to find out why he had been sent to a Japanese high school? Obviously there was a secret between Gene and his parents. He had tried to question Lin before, however the Omnouji had always been hard to get information out of and Naru couldn't even tell if he actually knew or simply wouldn't tell him.

Naru explained about the club he had joined over dinner. Lin was unusually pessimistic about it and gave him a long lecture on it, increasing Naru's desire to join just to prove him wrong.

"Noll, it's just going to be a group of high school girls giggling over how scary ghosts are. They might even be silly enough to do kokkuri-san or get an Ouija board out."

"If that happens I get to do an exorcism again," he said with satisfaction. "Besides, don't Japanese schools have something called the Seven Wonders that are mysterious phenomena that occur around the school?"

"I was of the belief that they are all myths that have very simple explanations," the Omnouji answered.

"Well, they will need investigation to find out if they indeed have such simple explanations," Naru pointed out.

His guardian smiled in spite of himself. "I understand. Let me know when to pick you up after the club then."

Naru wondered if Lin would still be content with it when he started asking him for equipment. He had noticed that the omnouji had packed some equipment to take to Japan and they were using a van similar to the one they used at SPR, indicating that he had made some preparations in the eventuality that something needed to be investigated.

"Just make sure not to use your PK as Gene is too far away," Lin warned. "It could be dangerous and I will not do your Japanese homework for you even if I know more Kanji than you."

Sometimes Naru thought that Lin had other abilities that he was keeping secret as he could often tell when he was up to something sneaky like reading case files when he was 10 and watching scary ghost movies with a high rating.

"I was going to ask, then Taniyama-san explained all the relevant Kanji," he said without thinking and Lin picked up on the name.

"Is she a member of the club?"

Naru attributed Lin knowing Taniyama was female to his senses and didn't question it. They discussed the difficulties and intricacies of Kanji until they finished eating. There was no one to assign to dishwashing duty because they were still getting takeaways and not cooking as neither knew how to cook.

The narcissist spent the rest of his evening doing homework and practising Kanji to sharpen his Japanese due to the fact that he didn't want to struggle through anymore Japanese lessons, although he hadn't minded when Taniyama had helped him.

* * *

Naru found the next day of lessons tolerable until Physical Education. Lin had refused to write him a note to get out of it so he had to do it. Unlike in English schools there were no separate changing rooms. Instead the girls changed in the classroom and the boys changed in a different classroom.

Once the class was outside he checked his appearance using a reflective glass wall of the school building as a mirror. The kit was an awkward fit on him and he scowled and felt even unhappier when the teacher announced that the class would be doing basketball. Gene had given him a nosebleed with a basketball when he was younger so he didn't have any fond memories of the game.

To avoid going anywhere near the ball, he made sure to hang around at the far ends of the court which was effective until the teacher spotted him and gave him a lecture about being more involved in sports.

He was extremely relieved when the bell rang to signal the end of school. Physical Education was more infuriating than the time a ghost had tripped repeatedly on a case and instead of helping him, Gene had stood around laughing at him. Michiru stopped by his desk to remind him that the club was today.

He packed his bag and followed the trio to the audiovisual room where they sat around a table. Taniyama was the first to speak.

"Did you enjoy Physical Education, Shibuya-san?" she asked him, looking amused which indicated that she had seen him getting lectured.

"Can we call you Shibuya-kun instead?" Keiko requested before Naru could give Mai a sarcastic retort.

"Of course," he said and tried to remember her name only to fail. He only knew Taniyama.

"She's called Keiko," Taniyama supplied helpfully. "Michiru is the one on your right."

"Thank you. What is your first name?" he questioned. "I only know your surname."

"It's Mai," she said. "It's fine to call me that since we are now in the same club."

Mai was debating to follow Keiko and Michiru's example and call him Shibuya-kun or to continue calling him Shibuya-san as she still wasn't very fond of him.

"It's my turn to get drinks from the vending machine, isn't it?" Keiko said suddenly. "Is canned coffee okay for everyone?"

Without waiting for an answer she picked her purse out her bag and rushed out of the room.

"I cannot drink coffee," Naru said apologetically. "Should I go after her?"

Michiru stood up. "No, I'll go after her. I want something different too."

She left the room leaving Mai and Naru together. Mai was left staring in her wake. Those two were never like that, clearly the presence of Kazuya Shibuya was making them nervous and eager to get things right. She supposed it was related to his looks. She didn't realise she had voiced that though aloud until Shibuya spoke.

"Oh, do you think I'm handsome?"

She narrowed her eyes. He was too full of himself and she had noticed him checking his reflection during Physical Education.

"Well, aren't you? Everyone else was making a fuss."

"They have good taste," he leaned forward and flashed his best dazzling smile.

Mai gave him a judging glance. "You're such a narcissist, Narucisstic Naru-chan," she pointed dramatically.


	3. Chapter 3

**One Fine Day:**

**Chapter 3:**

Upon hearing that Naru leaned back and stared at her suspiciously.

"Did you just call me without honorifics?"

Mai let her arm drop. "...No. Do other people call you that too? Well, you are a narcissist."

Naru felt relieved. She was simply referring to him being a narcissist and had no idea of his real name. Naru was the Japanese pronunciation of Noll, but how likely was a Japanese person to know that Noll was short for Oliver? It was a high obscure nickname.

He considered the narcissistic nickname and realised she was right about him being a narcissist. His mother had often commented on how vain he was as he spent a long time in front of the mirror. Even on his first day at school he had been thinking how much better he looked in a gakuran than everyone else.

A sudden thought struck him. Had he been sent to Japan to teach him not to be a narcissist? That was a plan that Gene would come up with and he had always been the one that could persuade their parents to do things like buy him sweets. However buying sweets and sending a child to Japan were almost oxymorons.

"You look like you finally realised you are a narcissist," Mai commented with a laugh, not knowing she had hit the mark exactly.

Naru was saved from having to awkwardly reply by the return of Keiko and Michiru who were carrying a mixture of cans. Mai accepted her coffee with a smile and Naru was handed oolong tea.

"Who is going to start it off this week?" Mai enquired. "It should be Keiko's turn next. However we have a new member."

Naru held up a hand. "Actually, I want to ask some questions first. What are the Seven Wonders of this school?"

"You mean all those stories that aren't true? I knew the ones at middle school, I don't know the ones for this school," Keiko answered hesitantly.

"Mai, do you know any?" Naru turned to Mai.

She shook her head, not noticing that he had dropped honorifics with her. "No. That said, I know someone who probably does."

"Who would that be?"

Mai giggled for some reason. "Takigawa-sensei, the music teacher. He told me once that he was a part time monk that does exorcisms."

Keiko burst out laughing. "He can't be a monk; he has a ponytail!"

Naru tried to image a ponytailed monk and failed. He was quite intrigued by the concept.

"Should we go and ask him?"

The brunette was about to agree as finding out the Seven Wonders of the school would be exciting and could be used for their ghost stories. The only question was why Naru, to give him his new nickname, was so curious.

"Why?"

The narcissist steepled his fingers. "I considered that we could investigate them and find out whether or not they are real."

"That sounds cool," Keiko agreed.

"It does sound fun," Michiru said excitedly.

Mai considered the idea. Admittedly, it sounded awesome, but it seemed like it would require breaking into the school at night and creeping around in the dark. She didn't like staying out that late as she had to do things like cleaning, homework and the laundry.

"We should consult the student president first," she said. "He is the one who is allowing us to use this room undisturbed after all. We need his approval to change the agenda of this club in case we get caught later on and get banned from meeting at school."

"Yasuhara-senpai should agree to it. He only agreed to the ghost story thing because he likes those kind of things," Keiko reminded her. "Besides, we have a weapon."

Upon seeing everyone's puzzled expressions she lowered her voice to a whisper.

"Didn't you hear the rumour that he has a weakness for pretty boys? Shibuya-kun is a fine specimen of that type."

Naru scowled. Even in this club his face was going to be used to entice people onto their side. In the very least it would allow them to start ghost hunting so he didn't mind that much.

"So for the moment we need to get permission from Yasuhara-san and then ask Takigawa-san for information," Mai summarised.

Naru thought of the collection of books he had on all aspects of ghost hunting at his apartment. He was usually stingy with his books, however the other members of the club were complete novices so he would have to train them up to his standard. If Lin was here with him, he would be telling him not to bother with it at all. That said, he saw some potential in them and all the mysteries were likely to be made up anyway so limited expertise would be required.

The ghost story telling proceeded once they wrapped up their future plans. Naru was impressed despite himself. Mai was particularly good at changing her voice and making faces at appropriate times. The other two girls had a good grasp on believable elements too.

Naru accosted Mai on her way out. The unopened can of oolong tea in his hand had provided him with a reminder that he needed to find some decent tea. Assumedly, if Mai did her own shopping she would have some idea where to get it from.

"Mai, do you know where to get decent black tea?"

Mai stopped in her tracks at the strangeness of the question. Naru was proving to be unpredictable so far.

"You could ask at Western style restaurant for some of their stock or for their supplier's information, I suppose," she said thoughtfully. "I'm not sure they would sell it to someone in a school uniform though."

Maybe he really was destined to a life in Japan without high quality black tea, he sighed inwardly. He was going to have to become accustomed to Japanese teas. He didn't find anything genuinely wrong with them. English tea just reminded him of home and he was missing it.

"Are there no other options?"

"There is a shop that sells tea in the city that will probably sell what you are looking for," she told him. "If I remember correctly, the prices are high because a lot of the teas sold are imports."

"That is fine," Naru searched for a plausible explanation for his high disposable income. "I got extra pocket money for joining a club."

Mai felt like he was not telling the complete truth, but her senses had been wrong yesterday. She shouldn't rely on them anyway, it wasn't like she really was psychic.

"I'll give you the address and you can go over yourself and search the shop to your heart's content," she smiled and wrote down the address for him, happy that they were having a normal conversation and he wasn't insulting her intelligence.

Naru was looking forward to Lin's reaction to going shopping with him. They had ventured into Shibuya at peak time on a weekend in the shopping distract and neither had enjoyed it to say the least. All the stimuli of large groups of people packed in together had been overpowering and Lin had been concerned about Naru losing control on his PK.

"What's the best time to shop in Tokyo?" he asked interestedly.

"On a weekday, after all the salary men have gone to work in the morning or before they finish work in the afternoon," Mai explained, sympathising with his problem. She had been crammed into a train carriage on the Yamanote line at peak time and was keen to never repeat that mistake again.

They walked through the school building together until Naru spotted Lin's van out a window and hurried off to meet him. If he was seen getting picked up it could spark questions about his family that he didn't want. He couldn't exactly say that Lin was his bodyguard because his parents were worried about him unleashing his PK.

On her way home Mai stopped by the park to see the ducks at the lake. Occasionally she fed them when she had something suitable with her. Most of the time she like to sit by the lake and watch them as it was calming, especially after a stressful day. When she sighted the ducks she found someone already there. She was too far away to see them properly, all she could see was that they were young, male and were wearing a red jumper and jeans.

Something told her to get a closer look discreetly, rather than just barging in and seeing him up close.

He was crouched down to feed the ducks so all she could see of his head was his silken black hair. Vaguely she wondered if he could be better or worse looking than Naru. It couldn't be him though, he was too self centred and narcissistic to even consider feeding ducks. Whoever it was had to be a kind person.

She accidently stepped on a thin branch concealed in the grass and the boy at the lake half turned his face towards her. All she saw before she hid behind a tree was his pale skin and blue eyes. In fact he looked like Naru. Was he Naru?

She peeked out again and could see that the Naru lookalike was smiling down at the ducks. It couldn't be him, she didn't know him very well, but she was sure that he was not the type of person to smile like that. He was much more of an evil smirk person. There was only one way to find out.

She walked out of her hiding place and approached him slowly. If it was Naru she would at least have something to tease him about.

"Naru?" she called out.

The person locked eyes with her before and turning and running away in the opposite direction. Mai stared after him doubtfully. He had looked exactly like Naru and probably was him. Why had he run then?

It was likely that Naru didn't want to admit that he liked feeding ducks as it would destroy his image of an impervious and mysterious transfer student. Mai shrugged. She would only mention it if he really annoyed her which was likely to happen very soon.

* * *

That night she had a strange dream that she was unable to remember in the morning. In it she was with Naru and Keiko and Michiru traipsing around the school at night along with the student president, the music teacher and someone that looked uncannily like the school nurse.

A number of scenarios played out in the dream. In one instance she was hiding behind Naru who had a protective arm around her whilst staring down a terrifying spirit with a cold glare. In another she had found a pile of coloured slips of paper with strange markings in a dark and damp location.

The one that she found most shocking in her dream was the time when Naru kissed her.

* * *

**It's likely to be very obvious who Mai saw by the lake so please don't insult me about how easy it is. (A long time ago I was insulted for something being too easy to work out in a fanfiction that I never tried to hide.)**


	4. Chapter 4

**One Fine Day:**

**Chapter 4:**

Mai visited Yasuhara, the bespectacled student president at lunchtime to arrange a meeting with everyone in the club to discuss the change in the club activities. He insisted on a clandestine meeting on the roof which was actually banned for students, yet he had a key. Mai had always wondered how he had managed to get hold of it.

"So, Mai-chan told me that you all wish to change the focus of the club," Yasuhara began once they were standing around in a circle on the rooftop. Naru was partially hidden behind Keiko so his beauty could be revealed if Yasuhara refused.

"That is true. We wish to investigate the mysteries of the school," Michiru explained.

Yasuhara's glasses glinted with light and he was silent for a few moments whilst everyone else waited with bated breath. Then he reached out and grasped Mai's hand.

"That so sounds exciting!" he exclaimed. "Can I join in too?"

Naru glared at Yasuhara's hand. Surely it was improper for a student president to be touching a first year like that? It wasn't that he was jealous, he was just not sure that it was appropriate. Japanese customs were sometimes difficult to understand.

"Shouldn't you be studying for your university entrance exams?" he interjected.

Yasuhara locked eyes with him for the first time. Naru stepped back unconsciously at the intensity of his gaze.

"Mai-chan, is this your new member?"

"I am," Naru answered. "Do you really have time to be the student president and study for exams?"

The brunette male pouted. "I suppose not. I can always pop in to help if you need me."

"Of course," Mai grinned which irked Naru.

Yasuhara seemed to remember his responsibilities as the student president and cleared his throat to deliver a lecture.

"I take it that you will be operating outside your normal hours and these hours will be late. Therefore if you all start arriving late to school or your grades slip, I will no longer permit your club to run and I will inform the teachers. Is that clear?"

They all nodded in agreement, everyone understanding his speech. Personally Naru was not too concerned about his grades or his attendance. He was too smart for that and his grades were not a concern as he was not intending on staying at high school for the following year. He had also become accustomed to limited amounts of sleep on cases before so he was not worried about that. He was more concerned about Mai and the others, he didn't want to the club to be shut down before they had finished investigating.

"Do you know any of the mysteries?" Mai asked Yasuhara as they walked down the stairs from the roof.

"I think there is one related to the girls' toilets on the third floor."

The next person they talked to was the music teacher Takigawa after school had ended. Naru had not been sure what to expect when Mai had told him he was a part time monk with a ponytail. He had never seen anyone look so unlike a monk than Takigawa. He greeted Mai warmly and the others politely.

It appeared that Mai could make friends with anyone without really trying. For a moment Naru was envious as he had never made any friends before. Then he remembered that his twin had been sufficient company and everyone else his age was below him in intelligence anyway.

Takigawa became guarded immediately when Mai asked him about the Seven Wonders of the school, a contrast to his earlier demeanour towards her. He folded his arms and gazed at them sternly.

"Why do you want to know? You have to have certain skills to be able to deal with spirits and carry out exorcisms. Stick to ghost stories, Taniyama-chan."

Naru decided it was time to step in. Dealing with sceptics and annoyingly stupid clients had taught him some persuasion skills.

"Takigawa-sensei, the mysteries are not likely to be the work of real spirits so there is little possibility that we will end up requiring an exorcism. If we do, we will arrange for you to do it as you have so much experience due to being a monk."

The monk looked much calmer after that compliment, but he still didn't give up.

"What do you know about ghost hunting anyway?"

It was time for a demonstration. The narcissist drew out a few books from his schoolbag, ready to show his knowledge when Takigawa exclaimed loudly:

"You have Dr. Oliver Davis' book!"

Distantly he heard Mai say "Who's that?" to the other girls, however he was more focused on his potential fan. If he had heard of him and seen an infamous PK demonstration video, Naru was going to be in an awkward position.

"Yes, I do have his book. It's very well written," Naru replied. "Have you read it?"

"Who is he?" Mai asked again.

"He is an eminent English psychic and scientist with powerful PK," Takigawa informed her. "He can throw a 50kg block of aluminium against a wall with it."

"That is impressive," Mai agreed.

"Is he famous for anything else?" Michiru enquired.

"His brother is a psychic medium with other abilities. Apparently he can see the future."

Internally Naru scoffed. Gene's foreseeing abilities were not very fine tuned and he could only predict the future occasionally and he couldn't choose when he did, but this was never reported. In any case Gene had no interest in expanding the ability and he hadn't predicted anything for nearly a year as far as Naru knew.

"They aren't old men, are they?" Keiko questioned. "Psychic characters in films are always really old."

Oliver Davis rolled his eyes. People always assumed based on his abilities and experience, that he was an older man until they met him in person. Whilst it was tiresome, it was useful as he disliked large amounts of attention and he would have been recognised by Takigawa by now."

"I don't actually know," the teacher confessed. "You're probably right about his age."

"Now will you tell us what you know about the school?" Naru returned to the original subject.

The music teacher hesitated and then relented.

"All right. Since you do have some knowledge, I might as well tell you on the condition that I accompany you."

Naru considered the proposition. As it stood, if they found anything an exorcism would not be possible because he could not use his PK if Gene was over five thousand miles away in England. There were limits to how far PK could travel between them. If Takigawa was really a monk, he could do the exorcisms. In addition, if he was a monk, he would have some knowledge about the supernatural and Naru would need him as Lin would not be with him to provide extra details.

"You may," he said much to Mai's surprise.

She had been expecting him to quickly reject the idea of having an authority figure accompany them as he was the type of person that preferred to be the boss than to be bossed around. She had a feeling that he had an ulterior motive for agreeing.

"Good. I wanted to investigate some of the mysteries before, but I've never managed to find the time. Being a teacher is exhausting and I have to arrange all the recitals and the music for school productions on top of teaching," he sighed.

"We won't be investigating every night," Mai reassured him. "Yasuhara-senpai gave us some limits and we wouldn't be able to keep up with school work if we did it every night."

"I should have known Yasuhara was involved in this somewhere," Takigawa groaned and then produced a notebook from his briefcase. They were in the music room due to the lack of privacy in the teacher's office." I think we should start with the one in the girls' toilets."

Naru recognised it as being the one Yasuhara had referenced. The only question was why Takigawa had selected that one.

"Why?"

"Because I think it's fake," he stated simply. "Therefore it should be the easiest."

Mai visualised where the girls' toilets were on the third floor. They were near the art rooms and weren't really used as they were the only toilets that hadn't been modernised in the school. The plumbing was ancient and made strange noises. If the strange noises were the mystery, she was going to be severely disappointed.

"What is the mystery about them?" Naru asked.

"In the past month, about twenty girls have complained about hearing ghostly noises coming from them."

Mai was beginning to feel disappointed. It probably was the old plumbing making even more noises when the other toilets in the school were being used.

"Are you sure it's not the plumbing?" She thought it would be best to confirm that it was an actual mystery.

Takigawa shook his head. "The pipes have been checked, they are still in the same condition they were in before the strange noises started to occur. In addition the noises were described as being screeching and screaming noises. The pipes normally groan not scream."

Naru stroked his chin. It sounded more interesting now that more information had been given. That said, he could see why Takigawa thought it was fake. School mysteries were usually established and old. This one was a recent one. Despite that he was still going to investigate it.

"Should we all meet here tomorrow night to investigate?" Naru suggested. "It can be our first case."

They all agreed on a time and a meeting place with Takigawa promising to show them a route into the school that would bypass the security guard.

* * *

A few hours after that, a black haired teenager wearing casual clothes unlocked the door of the apartment he was sharing with his mentor. He took his shoes off and announced his return.

"Madoka-san, I'm back."

The pink haired woman poked her head around the corner.

"You're just in time for dinner."

"Is it ramen again?" he teased.

He sat down at the small table in the living room and waited for Madoka to pour water onto some instant noodles. Mealtimes with Madoka varied between takeaway or instant ramen. He consoled himself with the fact that his twin was living under the same circumstances when it came to mealtimes as Lin was just as bad as Madoka for not cooking.

"What did Noll do today?" he questioned.

Madoka entered with two steaming bowls of ramen.

"He made arrangement to investigate a mystery at school and asked Lin for some equipment," she informed him. "It's a good thing you predicted he would need it."

Gene smiled mysteriously. "I saw quite a few things in Noll's future."

* * *

**A/N:** **I did change Gene's abilities slightly to fit the alternate universe. I am fully aware of what his canon abilities are.**


	5. Chapter 5

**One Fine Day:**

**Chapter 5:**

The following evening, when the blue sky had faded to black and the moon had replaced the sun, the club members tiptoed around the school with flashlights and met the monk in the music room. Naru had spent the daytime asking people about the toilets and had gleaned a fair amount of information.

"You didn't encounter the security guard?" Takigawa verified.

Mai gave him a thumbs up. "Nope. It was a clear route."

Naru ignored them. The facts were the following: the noises were only heard after lessons had officially ended and were heard by people participating in after school clubs on the third floor when they entered or were close to the toilets. The nearest classroom was the Art classroom where the Art club took place and the first reports had been from its members. As a result of the noises, no one had properly entered the toilets for a month.

When the facts were added together they suggested something. Naru had an idea as to what was going on, but wanted to investigate to verify his theory and find evidence. Whilst it was fun to be proven right, the investigation itself was enjoyable.

"Takigawa-san, can we call you "Bou-san" instead?" Mai requested. "It feels strange to call someone that helps you sneak into school "sensei"."

"She's right," Michiru agreed. "You're a member of our club now."

Takigawa held up his hands in surrender. "I don't mind at all. In fact, I welcome it. It means that you actually believe I am a monk. People have trouble believing me when I say that I am a monk for some reason..."

"Maybe it is the ponytail," the narcissist muttered under his breath.

Hearing light hearted conversations like that made him realise how lonely and dull his life was. Granted, he had Gene for company and enough cases to keep him satisfied, but sometimes it did feel lonely. He had never managed to make any friends and it had never bothered him greatly until now.

A poke to his arm brought him back to reality.

"I heard that, Naru-chan," the monk reprimanded him playfully. "You'll be speechless when you see me in action."

Naru snorted and didn't speak again until they walked up to the third floor. On his way up he ended up walking next to Mai.

"I had the strangest dream last night," she blurted out randomly. "It was about cats."

"Mai-chan, you do have the most random dreams," Keiko said from behind them.

"Remember the time you had a dream that the class fish died in middle school and when we got to school we found it had died during the night," Michiru reminded her.

Naru looked sharply at Mai before deciding there was nothing in it. Her seemingly precognitive dream in middle school has simply been a coincidence. He needed to stop looking for paranormal phenomena everywhere. Not everything had a supernatural explanation.

They reached the entrance to the toilets and listened carefully. All the stories were true. Mai could hearing an echoey screeching noise that made the hairs on her arms stand on end and she felt a strong desire to stay away from the toilets. Obviously Naru and Bou-san weren't experiencing the same feeling as they strode straight in.

Mai took a deep breath and covered her ears to lead the similarly scared Keiko and Michiru in with her. Watching scary ghost movies and telling stories was one thing, experiencing it in real life was another. The fact that they only had flashlights as a source of light made even more creepy.

She shone her flashlight around and found the narcissist and monk standing in the centre of the room.

"I'm not psychic at all," Bou-san admitted. "But I think there aren't any spirits here. The noise must be fake."

"You are correct," Naru agreed. "If you listen carefully, you can tell it's a recording and not a real screaming noise."

Tentatively Mai removed her hands from over her ears and listened. There was a static quality to the noise and it was repeating over and over like it was a recording set to repeat. She tried to find the location of the noise and realised it at the same time her teacher did.

"It's the cubicle on the far end," he exclaimed.

He pushed it open and came back out holding something in his hand, the noise getting louder as he did so. He shone his flashlight on it so everyone could see. It was an ipod that Mai recognised as being an older model. Bou-san pressed the pause button and the noise stopped.

"It is a recording," he stated the obvious.

The brunette felt relieved and disappointed at the same time. She hadn't wanted to encounter a ghost this early on, but she had still wanted to solve a mystery.

"We need to consider the motive now," Naru said and Mai perked up. There was still something to solve.

"It's a bit elaborate for a simple prank," the monk was in agreement.

"Perhaps someone likes having the toilets to themselves," Keiko suggested.

"They would play the noise during school hours instead," Michiru pointed out.

Naru was interested to see what Mai had to say about it. He himself had a good idea of the motive and wanted to see if she would come up with the same idea.

"What do you think it is?"

"...Is it to hide something? But why do it late in the day?" Mai asked out loud. Her questions matched Naru's thoughts exactly.

"I think there is something hidden here or in the vicinity that someone does not want other people to find," he informed her. "As the noise should be playing right now, we should be able to find something."

For that he received a pat on the shoulder from the monk. It was like the pats his foster father gave him so he didn't recoil from the unfamiliar touch.

"That's a good idea. Let's split up and look around this floor. Remember not to turn on the lights."

Mai ended up partnering Naru whilst Keiko and Michiru headed off with the monk.

"Should we start in here first?" she asked.

"It would seem logical," Naru replied. "You can be the one to check the toilet cisterns."

"Naru!" she griped. "Why do I have to do it?"

"Because," he said and went out of sight by turning off his flashlight.

Mai cursed him in her mind and resolved to get revenge by mentioning in front of the others that he liked feeding ducks. For now she would do what she was told and check the cistern in each cubicle with some difficulty due to the flashlight, She found nothing out of the ordinary in them. She walked out of the last cubicle and saw that Naru was searching by the sinks and she joined him to wash her hands which was difficult in semi darkness.

"Mai, did you find anything?"

"Nope," she answered. "Have you?"

"There is nothing here. Let's search somewhere else," he said and they left the toilets to stand outside in the corridor. "Where should we go next?"

Mai was debating the most logical place to search when she heard a strange noise. She stiffened and grabbed Naru's arm causing him to freeze up.

"Naru! I heard something," she hissed in his ear.

Naru was more focused on Mai's hand on his arm until he heard the noise. It didn't sound anything like a potential noise Bou-san and the other girls could be making. In fact it didn't sound human and it sounded close yet muffled.

"Is there something else set to play?" he wondered. "Mai, what's the nearest thing to where we are now?"

Mai trained her flashlight along the wall.

"There should be a closet where the cleaning materials for the toilets are kept. It's part of people's cleaning duty."

The beam of light uncovered a closet a couple of metres down the corridor and Naru suspected that they had found the source of the mystery.

"Mai, shine the flashlight into the closet when I open it," he ordered it.

He pulled open the door to reveal a mop and a cardboard box containing two cats who squirmed away at the light.

"Cats?" Mai gasped. "...Why?"

Naru remained with the cats whilst Mai left to retrieve the others. He awkwardly stroked one on the head as it appeared to be trying to run away. He wasn't overly fond of animals, that was more Gene's area.

* * *

"How does finding cats solve the mystery?" Keiko wanted to know.

By now they were back in the music room and Naru had handed the cats over to the others who knew what to do with them. One was being stroked by Mai and the second one was on Bou-san's lap.

"Someone was trying to hide them at school for some reason and they decided to create a distraction so no one else would find the hiding place. The culprit set up the recording to keep people out the toilets and away from the closet where they were hidden. Those in charge of cleaning must have been too scared to clean so the closet wasn't opened," Naru explained. "The importance was always attached to the toilets to distract from the closet nearby. The fake noises had the advantage of covering up any noises the cats made as people would think they were hearing the screaming noises."

"Who could it be? It was short sighted of someone to think it could go on like this," Bou-san commented.

Mai understood what he was trying to say. If the culprit had wanted to hide something they should do it in a place that would not inconvenience others.

"Exactly. Considering all the early complaints came from the Art club I would say that it's a member and the other members tried to help them by spreading around rumours about the toilets after school," Naru theorised. "The noises aren't heard during school hours so the culprit must hide them somewhere else. If we wait for them to arrive tomorrow morning we can find out who it is and stop them."

"That was a good deduction," the monk complimented him unexpectedly.

"Of course," Naru said and turned away.

He checked the clock on the wall. It was half past eleven which was not bad as they had met at half ten and had managed to solve the mystery quickly. He didn't unduly mind that it was fake and didn't involve real spirits. It had given him a chance to demonstrate his superior intelligence and test the instincts of the others.

It was then that he remembered Mai's dream about cats. It may have been a precognitive dream after all. If it happened again, he couldn't rule it out as being a coincidence and he would have to help her develop it.


	6. Chapter 6

One Fine Day:

Chapter 6:

The club members returned home after replacing the cats and the ipod where they found them. Naru was relieved when Bou-san offered to drive the girls home as he had been concerned about Mai who had no parents waiting at home to wonder where she was if she went missing. He was picked up himself by Lin in the van.

"Have you solved the case already?" Lin asked with interest. "You were quick so it must have been fake."

Naru simply gave him a hint of a smile. "I need to go to school early tomorrow morning to conclude the case. The only thing I don't know at the moment is the culprit."

"I see," Lin said. "Hopefully they won't run away because you wouldn't be able to catch up with them."

"Remember to tell my mother that I am interacting well with the other club members who are females and have yet to offend any of them," Naru answered, ignoring the second part of what Lin had said.

Lin snorted and Naru knew what he was thinking. It was only a matter of time before he offended them by implying they were less intelligent than him. Naru had had little intention of doing that so far unless it was to Mai. Her reactions were amusing.

In the morning they convened in the music room again whilst the school was empty of students and agreed on hiding places near the cleaning closet. They remained there until a short girl with red hair tied back into pigtails and matching red rimmed glasses, came walking into sight. Naru knew it was the culprit as she kept glancing around furtively and looked scared.

He left his hiding place when she opened the closet and the cats leapt into her arms.

"You should have thought of a better hiding place."

The girl screamed at the sight of him and tried to escape only to run into the monk.

"You cannot escape," Naru informed her harshly. "You have been caught out."

He winced when the girl burst into tears. He considered himself to be allergic to crying females.

"What he means is that you need to tell us why you did it," Mai said kindly. "It can't go on."

Once she stopped crying, Mai got the whole story from her. Her father had remarried to a woman that was allergic to cats and she had to give them up. She couldn't find anyone suitable so she decided to hide them instead. Her friends had suggested implementing the rarely used third floor toilets and she had adapted that idea. The cats were hidden during the day in the woods by the school, where nobody went. In the end, Bou-san agreed to ask around the teachers and his friends to find someone to take in the cats and accompanied her to the woods to hide them for the duration of the school day.

The rest of them headed to homeroom early. Naru fell deliberately in step with Mai.

"Did you have any dreams last night about cats?" he queried casually.

"I do remember dreaming something about cats," she smiled. "It was about someone taking one of them in."

"Who?"

"It's a secret," she smirked. "It's a surprising person."

Naru's interest was piqued. He couldn't think of a surprising person that could be persuaded to take care of a cat. The idea of Lin stroking a cat was undeniably amusing though.

"Tell me, Mai-chan," Keiko requested eagerly.

Mai stopped walking and whispered something in her ear and then Michiru's. This caused Naru to become annoyed. Why was he not privy to the secret? Then he decided it wasn't worth bothering about- there was no definite proof that Mai's dreams actually showed the future.

They met the student on classroom duty when they arrived at homeroom.

"Ubusuna-sensei is ill again today so second period Biology is self study," he informed them and returned to writing on the blackboard.

"Again?" Michiru complained. "That's the third time this term. I know she's been at this school for over 30 years, but the principal should stop giving her leeway."

Naru had barely paid attention in any scientific subjects so far as he knew far more than the teachers did so there wasn't anything new he could be taught by them. He had taken notes automatically without really listening. High school life was hard when you already had a PhD.

"We could meet Takigawa-sensei after school," he suggested.

"Why?" Keiko wanted to know.

"To ask him what the Seven Mysteries actually are. He didn't get around to the real ones last time," he paused when he realised that he may have been the only member of the club to enjoy the previous night's events. "If you are all still interested in investigating that is."

"I found it fun," Keiko said with a smile.

"I liked it. If only I had helped to solve it..." Michiru sighed wistfully.

"It was scary at first, but I enjoyed it," Mai added her opinion. "I'm fine with going to see Bou-san as long as it doesn't take all afternoon. There's a sale at the supermarket that I don't want to miss."

During the self study session they discussed ideas for the Seven Mysteries instead of studying.

"It's strange that no students seem to know what they are," Mai commented. "If Ubusuna-sensei was here she could tell us- she is ancient enough."

Naru was glad that the other members of the class were also talking between themselves and weren't likely to be able to hear them. The last thing he needed was for someone to find out what they were doing and report it to the principal. Another thing to be glad for was his lost popularity. Once it became clear that he was part of the ghost story club, no one paid him any attention.

"What are the typical Seven Mysteries?" he asked. Perhaps some of them would be the ones the monk knew.

"Blood in a well, a frozen clock, a moving anatomy doll," Michiru listed.

"Is there a well here?"

"...Yes," she answered hesitantly. "It should be outside the old school house which we aren't allowed to go anywhere near."

The narcissist realised that an old school house had never been mentioned by the principal when he had given Naru a tour of the school. It was understandable if it was disused, but it was suspicious and would be significant if it was tied to the Seven Mysteries.

"I have not seen it," he told them.

"It's at the back of the school, hidden in some trees. The girl who was hiding the cats hid them in the woods around there, which is smart because no one ever goes there," Mai explained.

"We only know about it because one of the older teachers told us never to go anywhere near it," Keiko added.

Naru mulled it over and felt that the facts surrounding it were fishy.

"If it's hidden and isn't used, why hasn't it been knocked down?" he asked.

The girls stared at him and then exchanged looks.

"I never considered that. Perhaps it is one of the Seven Mysteries because of that," Mai said thoughtfully. "Bou-san might know why it hasn't been knocked down yet."

Naru was beginning to feel that the Seven Mysteries were promising in terms of an investigation. It seemed that there was something suspicious going on in the school after all. He was eager to start investigating, but he had to sit through another Japanese lesson. Fortunately he had now studied some Kanji so it wasn't completely terrible and he also didn't have PE. That lesson was nothing less than torture.

The school bell could not have rung soon enough for Naru. As soon as the others had packed up their schoolwork, he led the way to the music room where Bou-san was arranging the music stands.

"What did you all come here for? If it's about the cats-"

Naru cut him off. "We would like to know about the Seven Mysteries."

The monk became serious at once. He arranged five chairs in a circle and gestured for them to sit down. Naru chose to sit opposite the monk to observe his facial expressions better.

"I wasn't intending to tell you. That said, last night showed that you are all sharp and quick to add up facts so I give my full approval."

"Is the old school house involved?" Naru questioned sharply.

Bou-san looked surprised. Clearly he hadn't become accustomed to the idea that Naru was more intelligent than him.

"That's correct. All the Seven Mysteries are based there. The main reason for closing the building off and concealing it with trees, was all the rumours that got out of hand and after lots of complaints from parents, the school decided to pretend it didn't exist."

The narcissist frowned. The motive for concealment felt too minor. There had to be more reasons.

"It closed down 20 years ago- I got all this information from some of the older teachers and ex students. The building itself is over a century old and used to be the science building," Bou-san related the information.

The urge to pull out his black notebook and note everything would have been too strong for Naru, but he had left it behind in England and now he berated himself for it. He used his almost empty Biology workbook instead.

"We know the background now, what are the actual mysteries?" Keiko pressed the monk for information.

"Young people are so impatient," Bou-san groaned before answering the question. "They are the shadow of a girl hanging herself in the Biology lab, the severed hand in the prep room, blood in the well outside, the 13th stair, the statue outside, the bloody reflection in the mirror in the toilets and the mysteriously bending spoons."

Mai gulped. None of them sounded remotely pleasant to encounter. There had to be a logical explanation somewhere and she wasn't supposed to be scared anyway, she loved ghost stories and the feeling you got when hearing them. She wasn't going to get scared.

Her teacher noticed her distress and patted her on the head kindly.

"It's all right Jou-chan, I'll protect you."

"Thanks, Bou-san," Mai said, instantly cheerful again.

Naru cleared his throat to interrupt them. How was a ponytailed monk going to protect Mai?

"Due to the seclusion of the school house we should be able to investigate without trouble," he said. "We could ask Yasuhara to investigate it for us."

"I'll ask him on Monday," Mai made a note in her planner and then remembered her dream. "Did you find someone that wanted to take care of the cats?"

Bou-san nodded. "I found two people. However, one person can't pick it up today so I'm not sure what to do with the black cat for now. Pets are banned where I live so I can't take it home with me."

Naru thought again of what Lin's face would look like when he presented him with a cat. His thoughts continued in that vein. His mother would be delighted if he offered to take care of a cat and the sooner she was content with his improved interaction with other people, the sooner he would be allowed to return home to England, so he volunteered.

"I'll take it for tonight," he offered, not expecting Mai's reaction.

"Yes!" she exclaimed happily. "I had a dream that you would."

 


	7. Chapter 7

One Fine Day:

Chapter 7:

Naru wanted to change his mind about taking care of the cat when he had to carry it out of school and into the van where Lin was waiting for him. As he couldn't been seen with the cat Mai, Keiko and Michiru were keeping a lookout and warning him when to hide.

As a result it took him ten minutes to reach the school gate and he was not happy. The cat wouldn't keep still and was wriggling in his arms. He had just reached the van when Mai called after him. scuppering his plan of depositing the cat on an unassuming Lin's lap.

"What are you going to feed the cat?"

That was a good point. What did cats eat? Milk and fish? He realised that his scientific knowledge didn't cover cat food. His silence must have told Mai that he knew nothing about cats as she made him an offer.

"I have a coupon for cat food somewhere. Would you like to go to the supermarket with me to get some?" she asked.

The cat would have to eat something or it would get crabby and scratch up everything in the apartment out of spite. He also had a plan to send his mother a photo of him and the cat. An annoyed cat would not be suitable photographic material. He would have to get it something. He could ask Mai about her dreams on the way too.

"I suppose I should. Wait a second, I need to get rid of the cat."

He opened the passenger door of the van and gently put the cat down on the seat. If Mai was there he couldn't shock Lin with it because he didn't want her to spot him and ask awkward questions.

"I'm ready."

The pair walked side by side down the road with Naru trying to find a way to broach the subject of her dreams and Mai wanting to ask what had possessed him to volunteer to take care of the cat as it was a contrast with his personality. Naru started first.

"What sort of things do you dream of?"

"Usually I can't remember, I get a feeling instead. It's either a good or bad feeling," she said, remembering how she felt when she woke up on the day Naru transferred.

Naru understood what she meant. "Does something good happen on the days you have a good feeling and vice versa?"

Mai nodded.

The narcissist asked a difficult question. "What feeling did you get on the day I arrived?"

"It was a good feeling," she answered hesitantly. "I don't know why though. You were nothing but mean to me."

"I graced you with my perfect face," Naru retorted, only slightly serious. He wasn't the type to make jokes normally, however he couldn't resist saying that just to infuriate Mai.

Mai rolled her eyes. "Naru is definitely the right nickname for you. I was surprised when you volunteered to take care of the cat. Is there an ulterior motive?"

The side of Naru's mouth twitched. Mai had a habit of hitting things on the mark. First his English nickname, cats and now his real motives. Perhaps it was linked to her dreaming abilities.

"Not at all," he lied and changed the subject. "How much further is it?"

She squinted at him. "Are you out of breath already? I've seen you getting tired after the warm up in Physical Education, but I didn't know you were this unfit. Don't you need to outrun ghosts?"

Naru retreated into silence. He somehow managed to run when the time came which was most likely due to adrenaline. That said, Mai was correct about him being just a little unfit. Not that he was going to do anything about it. He was Dr. Oliver Davis, not your typical high school student that cared about grades and socialising.

They reached the supermarket soon after that. Upon entering Mai confidently picked up a basket and Naru trailed behind her, trying not to look like he had never been in a Japanese supermarket before. It was more visually arresting than a British supermarket as he had to translate the characters on the signs and posters in his mind before he could understand them.

There appeared to be a sale going on for tofu and natto products and a time sale later on, whatever that was. He looked over at Mai and realised that she was a few metres ahead of him. He hurried after her.

"Have you never been to a supermarket before? she questioned suspiciously. "You were very caught up in looking around at everything."

"Not for a number of years," Naru answered vaguely. "Where is the cat food?"

"In the aisle with a sign saying pet food," she said. "It's at the other end of the store."

She handed him the coupon and turned back to surveying the vegetables to decide which ones were the best quality at the lowest possible price.

Naru walked off unsurely. Mai might think it was easy because she could read Japanese and was used to the layout of a supermarket, he most definitely was not.

He found the correct aisle easily enough and deduced which products were intended for cats due to the pictures of cats on the packaging. The real challenge was working out which ones to purchase. The coupon was eligible for a number of products so it didn't help. He knew that the cat was only going to be at the apartment for one night before he handed it back to Bou-san to give to his friend. The smallest and least expensive product would do. If the cat didn't like, it was the cat's problem.

Mai wasn't in the aisle that she had been in when they split so he had to comb the entire supermarket for her. He garnered lots of admiring glances from elderly ladies along the way. One tried to have a conversation about cats with him which he avoided by saying the food was for his girlfriend's cat that he hated. Eventually he found her lifting up a heavy bag of rice into her basket.

"Isn't that too heavy to carry all the way home?" he asked curiously.

"I got used to it," she smiled with a hint of sadness and then perked up, as was her custom. "I developed strong muscles as a result so it's all good."

Her optimism was one of her good points, Naru decided. It was good to see that she hadn't let her situation depress her.

"I got the cat food," he announced to keep her from thinking too deeply about her parent's deaths.

* * *

 

They returned to outside the school where the black van was still waiting. Naru winced when he thought about the mood Lin would be in. Mai waved good bye and carried on up the road.

Surprisingly Lin was not annoyed in the least, although the presence of the cat still sitting in the passenger seat suggested he hadn't warmed up to the cat.

"Was that Taniyama-san?" Lin asked. "I didn't get a good look."

"It was," Naru said, surprised that Lin had managed to guess it was her from a quick glance.

"It was lucky that she realised the cat needed food," the omnouji pointed out, seeming to take the idea of having a cat dumped next to him well. "You would have never realised."

Naru glared at him half heartedly. He would have realised eventually when the cat started trying to eat the sushi they were going to have for dinner.

After the cat had been fed Naru called his parents. They hadn't spoken since his first day at school and he hoped they were starting to miss him. If they did, his mother was more likely to relent and tell him to come back home. He didn't dwell on the fact that he no longer had such a strong desire to go back to England.

"Noll! You've finally called me again, I was beginning to think you never would," his mother lamented. "I want to know everything you've done since we last spoke."

"Calm down Luella," his father's voice could be heard in the background. "Or he really will list everything he has done."

"Just a condensed version please," she requested after a moment "No intricate details about spirits either."

"I changed the focus of the club to investigating supposedly paranormal rumours about the school," he launched into an explanation of the first case which was well received by his mother due to the cats and his interaction with normal people. He finished with mentioning that he had offered to take care of the cat.

"Really Noll? That's very considerate of you," she enthused happily.

"I can send you a photo of it later," he offered.

"That would be wonderful," she paused. "Have you remembered to feed it?"

Naru realised that Mai remembering the cat's needs before he did had turned out to be beneficial. His mother would have been very disappointed if it turned out that he had forgotten.

"Of course I did. I went shopping for it after school with one of the girls from the club," he assured her.

That placated her and they spent another ten minutes talking about the latest mainstream ghost film that she had his father had gone to see back in England. He asked to talk to Gene again and again she said he was out somewhere with Madoka.

Later on Naru asked Lin to take a photo of him and the cat. Lin acquiesced without questioning why, as he had hoped. He was aware that Lin was reporting things to his parents and he didn't want Lin to work out that he was deliberately using the cat to persuade his mother to let him go home. The main trouble with the photo was making the cat settle down. Whenever he tried to hold it the cat slipped out of his arms as if it knew it was being used for something

"Why won't it stay still?" Naru sighed. "What do people see in cats anyway?"

Lin lowered his phone and surveyed the scene critically.

"Perhaps it would relax if you stroked it," he suggested. "Gently."

The idea worked well once Naru got the hang of it and the cat calmed down and allowed the photo to be taken. Lin sent the photo to Naru's parents and one other person.

The recipient sniggered when his phone loaded the photo. He put his chopsticks down and gestured for the pink haired woman eating ramen opposite him to take a look.

"Madoka-san, look at this photo of Noll."

She leaned over and laughed too. "I need to have this photo on my phone too."

Gene looked at the photo again. "Noll is so obvious about not liking the cat. It was a good idea though, Mum loves cats and will like it."

"I never predicted that he would pose for a photo by stroking a cat," she broke off. "Did you?"

Gene shook his head. "I only saw who would offer to buy cat food with him."

"Was it Taniyama-san?"

Gene smiled. After he had encountered her at the lake, he had experienced a few more dreams about her and Naru. It was fun getting reports from Lin and finding out they were coming true.

 


	8. Chapter 8

**Some Wonderful Day:**

**Chapter 8:**

Blissfully unaware that a photo of him stroking a cat had been passed around, Naru met with Bou-san the next day to give him the cat. It was a Sunday so he spent most the day catching up with homework and trawling the internet for anything connected to the supernatural or the Seven Wonders of Japanese high schools.

The next day at school, the club members gathered together with Bou-san to discuss when and how they were going to sneak into the old school house. It was agreed on that the monk would make a copy of the key in the security guard's office and they would start investigating in three days time.

Naru occupied himself in that time by selecting the equipment that he wanted to use and wondering what to do with Mai. By now it was quite clear that she had some abilities that could not be chalked up to coincidence and her powers were developing as she had gone from just having feelings to remembering things she had dreamed about. If used correctly, her abilities could help to solve the case.

He resolved to test her as the case progressed. He was intrigued by her abilities and if he helped her develop them, his parents would be pleased. Or that was what he told himself.

* * *

 

The night they started investigating was a rainy one with the added amusement of thunder and lightning. Naru had to admit that the rain and thunder added a little atmosphere to sneaking around the school grounds at night. The girls did not feel the same way strangely enough.

They were huddled together in the rain waiting for Bou-san to unlock the padlock that secured the old school house. The monk had his flashlight between his teeth to find the keyhole and was having difficulty due to the rain and the poor visibility. The three females were hugging each other to keep warm as the night was cold and wet.

"I've done it," Bou-san announced triumphantly.

He pushed the door open and as he did so, there was a rumble of thunder and seconds later, a flash of lightning that caused the girls to scream and the monk and Naru to jump in surprise. Naru was the first to recover from the surprise. He switched on his flashlight and shone it inside.

"Come on. The thunder and lightning was a coincidence, don't let it scare you. The sooner we finish, the quicker we can all go home and dry off."

Extremely reluctantly the girls disentangled themselves from each other and followed the monk and narcissist into the building. They grouped together by the old shoe lockers to discuss strategies.

"This is only a reconnaissance to check for any signs of the stories mentioned so it's fine for us to split into groups," Naru ordered them.

"Shouldn't I be the one giving the orders?" Bou-san grumbled. "I'm the teacher."

"Who solved the previous case?"

Before an argument could break out between the monk and narcissist, Michiru pushed Mai towards Naru.

"Mai-chan is the only one that can deal with Shibuya-kun so they can go around together," she said eagerly. "Keiko-chan and I will go with Bou-san."

Naru found this arrangement pleasing. It had worked on the previous case and he had never really had a conversation with Keiko or Michiru without anyone else present so it would be awkward to walk around with one of them. Mai and Naru took the first floor whilst the others went up the stairs to the second floor.

"We cannot check the well or the statue because of the weather, we can look at those on another night," Naru said to Mai. "Therefore we only have to look for signs of the other five."

That made sense to Mai and she had no inclination to lift up the cover on the well and try to see inside on a night like this.

"Two of the mysteries are linked with the science department so we should look there. Bou-san wasn't sure what floor the science labs were on," Mai mused thoughtfully.

She shone her flashlight at the wall when she saw the shape of a sign in the semi darkness.

"It's just normal classrooms so far."

"Judging by the shape of the building there has to be a turn in the corridor coming soon," Naru spotted a turn in the corridor as he spoke." Perhaps the science labs will be down there."

Mai nodded and wrinkled her nose. The building smelt extremely musty and old. The air was full of dust that kept going up her nose as the air hadn't been disturbed in years. She wasn't enjoying it too much at the moment and the constant sound of the rain driving against the windows only made it worse. On the brighter side, the narcissist was behaving himself.

Naru slid open the door of one of the classrooms and shone the flashlight around to reveal the signs of a science lab. There were wooden workbenches with sinks at the end and fume cupboards along the back. There was a collection of old wooden test tube racks and clamp stands by the windows.

"This must the start of the science labs," he noted and stood to the side to let Mai look in as well.

"So we need to look for the shadow of a girl hanging herself?" she asked.

"That's what Bou-san said. I cannot see one in this room. We will have to go through all the labs and find the prep room too."

They repeated the routine with the remaining science labs and found nothing that resembled a girl hanging herself. At the end of the corridor, by the emergency exit was the prep room.

"I believe we are supposed to find a severed hand in here," Naru said just to provoke a scared reaction from Mai. "Let me know if you see one."

He found the prep room was free of chemicals which was a relief for Naru. He had been worried that just like the classrooms, there would be things left behind. It was mainly empty shelves that didn't take long to check. Mai checked the drawers at the back that were labelled with titles of smaller pieces of science equipment. She stopped after examining one row of drawers.

"Naru, wasn't there a mystery involving bent spoons? If there is, I found the bent spoons."

The narcissist looked over her shoulder to check. She had indeed found a drawer full of bent spoons.

"That is mysterious," Naru commented. "Spoons can be used to measure out larger quantities of substances so it is understandable for them to be here, but there is no reason for them to be bent."

Mai went through the rest of the drawers and found most of them were empty.

"I wonder why some things were left behind here. It looks like this place was closed up in a rush," she frowned. "There must be a good reason for it."

"We can ask Yasuhara-san to research it," Naru remarked.

"Should we go and find the bloody reflection in the girls' toilets?" Mai asked, perfectly content to leave the strangely bent spoons behind and change location.

Whilst Mai's back was turned Naru picked out one of the spoons at random and placed it in his pocket. He planned to perform some psychometry on it later.

Again they found no sign of a mystery in the girls' toilets on the first floor so they walked up the stairs to rejoin the others. Naru counted the stairs on the way up and found there were twelve. The mystery said there was a thirteenth stair. There was another floor to the building so the mystery could be concerned with the other staircase instead of the one connecting the first and second floor. The pair found the others outside the girls' toilets.

"Did you find anything?" Bou-san questioned immediately. "We haven't found anything yet."

"We scoured the science labs and prep room. There was no shadow, however we found the bent spoons," Naru answered. "Mai and I are going up to the next floor now. You can all come if you want."

The ponytailed monk was in agreement. "We can count the stairs, check the toilets and go home."

"Even if we don't find anything, there is still a mystery surrounding the school house."

An understanding glint came into Bou-san's eyes. "So you noticed that too?"

Mai and Naru led the way up the stairs and she counted the steps. Mai stopped at the top whilst Naru told the others there were twelve again. Without thinking, she stepped down a step to join in the conversation and suddenly lost her footing. She tumbled down the first few steps and was prevented from falling down any more when Naru caught the back of her coat and pulled her up.

"Mai, did you hurt yourself?" he demanded urgently and shone his flashlight on her.

"I think I just scratched my legs up," she winced as she made an attempt to stand up.

Naru's examination revealed that she had a couple of gashes as well as bruising that would be apparent later on. Once he was certain that she hadn't hit her head or broken anything, he questioned why she had slipped. Under normal circumstances she shouldn't have and they were all being extra vigilant because they couldn't see properly so that it made it even less likely that it had been an accident.

With that idea in mind, he felt around the top stop and his hand came in contact with a taut length of string. It was hard to see in the dark as it blended in well with the grey colour of the steps. The ends of the string were tied around nails driven into the wall. The string had stretched where Mai had unwittingly hooked her foot in it.

"It was not an accident, it was a trap," he observed.

The monk joined him in his examination whilst Keiko and Michiru checked Mai's injuries.

"Someone wants to make sure no one comes out of here unscathed," Bou-san said. "Or is it someone's method of checking if anyone has been here since the building was closed?"

"The school wouldn't have done it, it has to be someone else. The mystery has become much more interesting now," Naru smiled.

He and Bou-san exchanged looks. Their brief moment of complete agreement and friendliness was broken by Keiko coughing loudly.

"Never mind the conspiracy theories, Mai-chan needs her cuts cleaned and some plasters," she reminded them.

Bou-san snapped to attention. "I didn't forget. It is possible that you could get them from the school doctor's office in the current school building. She is so inefficient that she won't notice a missing plaster or two. You two can take her there. Naru-chan and I will check the third floor."

Mai was supported in between Keiko and Michiru and the three of them stumbled through the rain together until they reached the school building. They found the doctor's office unlocked and entered. The brunette sat down on a bed whilst her friends searched for wipes and plasters.

She stretched her arms and yawned. As she did she felt like someone was watching them. She glanced at the doorway and caught sight of a dark figure. Instantly she grabbed her flashlight and pointed it at the doorway to reveal a red haired woman standing in the doorway. Mai screamed and so did Keiko and Michiru when they saw the figure.

"What on earth are you all doing at school this late at night?" the woman asked and stepped into the office, allowing them to see that she was real and not a ghost.

 


	9. Chapter 9

**Some Wonderful Day:**

**Chapter 9:**

Mai blinked at the suddenness of the woman's appearance and her question.

"Shouldn't I be asking you that question too?" she enquired after recovering from the surprise.

The woman folded her arms and looked haughtily at her. "I am the school doctor, I have a right to be here unlike you three."

The brunette acknowledged that she was the school doctor, but that still didn't explain why she was in the school this late at night. The school doctor's eyes zoned in on Mai's legs which were lit up by the flashlight.

"Are you here with that idiotic music teacher?" she questioned unexpectedly.

"Perhaps," Mai answered.

"I suppose you injured yourself in the old school house too."

The teenage psychic stared at her wonderingly. Bou-san had called her inefficient, however she seemed to be sharper than he had given her credit for.

"How did you know that?" Keiko wanted to know.

The woman rolled her eyes. "I spotted him a few days ago with the key for the old school house. From the way he was acting, I knew he was up to something. I overheard him talking with someone in his classroom about visiting it tonight so I came to the school to see what he was doing. I didn't think he would be up to something with female students."

Mai hastened to explain before the school doctor got the wrong idea about why they had come to the old school house with Bou-san.

"He's a monk and he's helping us investigate the Seven Wonders. We came here with a boy too. They're still in the old school house at the moment."

The school doctor was silent for a moment before she spoke again.

"All right. I will patch you up and then we can all go back to the school house together. I'm Ayako Matsuzaki, you can call me Matsuzaki-sensei."

She cleaned Mai's leg and applied some gauze. After that they trudged through the never ending rain again, this time sheltered by Ayako's huge umbrella. They found the monk and Naru waiting inside by the front door.

"There's nothing on the third floor," Bou-san sighed as soon as they filed in and then he spotted the doctor at the back. "What's the old woman doing here?"

Ayako poked the monk with the spike of her umbrella.

"Don't call me that! You should stop lying about being a monk too."

Naru sized up the new arrival. She had to be the school doctor as Mai's legs had been treated unusually well for a pair of fifteen year olds so it had to have been someone more trained. It also seemed that she held similar views as him on the likelihood of Takigawa being a monk.

"Is it because I have a ponytail?" Bou-san demanded, looking more annoyed than Naru had ever seen him. "No one would believe you if you said you were a priestess either."

"I am a priestess," she stated simply.

Naru's eye twitched. What was it with the staff at this high school claiming to be things they looked to be the opposite of? Both of them strayed very far from the classic definition of a monk and priestess. Whilst they were arguing Naru used the opportunity to stand next to Mai in order to verify the woman's identity.

"Who is she?"

"The school doctor, Matsuzaki-sensei. She saw Bou-san with the school house key and knew he was going to come here tonight. She insisted on coming here with us to confront him," Mai told him.

Naru sighed and attempted to work out a way to rectify the situation before the music teacher annoyed the school doctor so much that she wanted to rat them out to the principal.

"Matsuzaki-sensei and Takigawa-sensei, please stop arguing and remember that you are in positions of authority," he said and they stopped. "Let's agree that you are both what you claim to be and investigate the case together without disagreement. You can prove that you are a priestess and monk later on."

Ayako and Bou-san exchanged looks before turning back to Naru.

"I want to know what's going on here too so I'll behave," Ayako said.

"I got here first, but the old- I mean, Matsuzaki-sensei can join us," Bou-san added.

Naru summarised everything for Matsuzaki and did not mention that he had purloined one of the bent spoons. It would be awkward to explain when he mentioned something that he had seen after using his psychometry on it. He would have to keep his discoveries from it quiet.

He consulted his watch and saw how late it was.

"Can we discuss the findings tomorrow? It's getting late and we all have to be at school in several hours."

Everyone agreed that they wanted to go home and sleep so they left with Bou-san relocking the padlock behind them. He suggested that they could all meet in his classroom after school. Naru refused all offers of a lift from Ayako and Bou-san and called Lin to pick him up instead. Whilst he was waiting in the rain he went over the things he had noticed in his mind. There was the string, the spoons and the state the old school house had been left in.

When he was dry and in his own bedroom, he took out the spoon from his pocket to perform the psychometry. It wasn't guaranteed that he would see things from the view of the person that had bent it because equipment in prep rooms ended up being used by technicians and by the students. That said, he would gain a view of what went on in the old school house before it was closed down.

He cupped it in his hands and closed his eyes in concentration.

His vision changed and he became the person that was bending the spoon. They were gripping the spoon so tightly so tightly their knuckles turned white. The person had successfully bent the spoon and then the vision went blurry followed by a change to green.

The colour green signified that the person that had bent the spoon was dead.

It was worrying. He remembered that the hands in the vision were feminine as well as smooth and the sleeves of the garment she had been wearing had resembled a school uniform.

Therefore the person who had bent the spoon was a female high school student that was now dead.

He didn't like the situation. He had no indication of when the spoon bending event had taken place and potentially she could have died of natural causes later on. His psychometry was still unexplored compared to his PK so he was unsure if the girl had died straight after bending the spoon or later on in life.

This vision coupled with other things he had noticed indicated that there was a sinister truth behind the Seven Wonders.

He wished he could talk to Gene about it and ask him what the best course of action would be. Of course his brother never had any sensible ideas, but after hearing one of his ideas, Naru always became sure that his idea was the best. Lin was always an option. The drawback of Lin was that as his bodyguard, he wouldn't allow him to investigate.

* * *

 

As previous arranged they met in Bou-san's classroom with the addition of the student president. Naru had requested his presence and Mai had dutifully persuaded him to come despite his need for exam revision.

"The only sign of the Seven Wonders was the bent spoons Naru-chan found," Bou-san began the discussion. "The well and the statue were not checked, but they are probably normal. Perhaps the stories are really just myths and the spoons matching one of them is just a coincidence."

Naru decided it was time to demonstrate his knowledge.

"If the Seven Wonders are connected to spirits, then there is a reasonable explanation. Paranormal phenomenon mostly occurs in uninhabited areas-"

Mai finished off his sentence. "-So when people visit those areas, the ghosts will hide themselves for a while."

Naru turned to look at her in surprise. "Did you have a dream?"

"Yes," she replied. "You said that exact line in this room and then Matsuzaki-san and Bou-san started picking holes in that statement."

The looks on the monk and priestess' face told Naru that Mai's dream had been very accurate.

"It's just that it doesn't explain the trap on the stairs," Bou-san admitted. "It could be that the Seven Wonders aren't connected with the motive of the person that set the trap."

"That is a point," Naru conceded. "There are too many confusing things here. Yasuhara-san, do you know anything about the old school house? I only know the basics."

A good student president would know a lot about school from where the delinquents hung out to the names of the rival school and the history of the school.

"It's shrouded in mystery, however I have heard a few things here and there," Yasuhara's glasses caught the light somehow. "Do you want to hear them?"

Naru pulled put his Biology workbook and a pen to take notes. Yasuhara might have some relevant information if he was lucky.

"The current principal has been here for five years. I heard a strange story from one of my cousins about the principal and the school house," Yasuhara pushed his glasses up his nose so they glinted again. "The principal was interested in demolishing the school house to build a gymnasium to replace the current one. He went inside to assess the cost of tearing it down. Apparently he came out deathly pale and has never mentioned the building ever since that time."

The narcissist noted that down. It was an interesting story and would explain why the school house was rarely talked about.

"Do you have anything else?" Ayako asked eagerly.

The student president nodded and continued on. "I heard this one from my aunt, the previous principal was the one that closed the school house down. After closing it he was never the same again and always looked afraid of something."

Naru decided Yasuhara was useful now.

"Could you research the old school house for us?" he requested. "If you have time in your schedule."

He added that on after remembering that Yasuhara was a third year and should be preparing for entrance exams. He knew that if he was in Yasuhara's position and didn't have his superior level of intelligence, he would be furiously revising.

"I'll try my best to do it," Yasuhara assured him. "I'm doing well in practise papers so I should be fine with doing research on top of revision and my student president duties."

Mai grinned at Naru. "You're surprisingly considerate sometimes. Like offering to take care of that cat and feeding ducks."

That line elicited a sharp look from Naru.

"When have you seen me feed ducks?"

"Last week in the park," she whispered in his ear. "If you want me to keep it quiet, I will."

Naru simply stared at her. He had never fed any ducks or set foot in a park so far since he had arrived in Japan. How had she seen him doing that if it had never happened?

 


	10. Chapter 10

One Fine Day:

Chapter 10:

Mai's statement had completely thrown Naru. Either it had been a dream or she had been mistaken. It could have been a lookalike or... Gene. Was it Gene?

His twin had always been fond of feeding ducks in parks at home in England. He himself would simply sit on a bench nearby and pull out a book whilst Gene cooed over the ducks.

That said, it couldn't have been Gene. His brother was back in England and had been the one to get him sent to Japan. If he had wanted to send him to Japan so badly, Gene wouldn't have followed him here. There was no probable motive for Gene to be around.

It couldn't have been Gene.

"Mai, can I talk to you after school?" he hissed in her ear and she accepted.

Bou-san coughed to get their attention.

"Now that you two have stopped whispering in each other's ears, we can get on with it."

Mai flushed in embarrassment and snapped to attention.

"What were you saying, Bou-san?"

"I was talking about returning to the school house on another night to see if any spirits have become accustomed to having human presences around or we could place some monitoring equipment there."

Naru nodded in approval. Takigawa may look the opposite of a typical monk, but he knew some things about ghost hunting. It was fortunate that Lin had brought a good selection of equipment from England with him.

"I have a few cameras and microphones," he said. "I got the idea from Dr. Oliver Davis' book."

"Are they infrared or ultra high sensitive?"

"I have both," Naru answered smugly. The Society for Psychical Research did things properly.

"Excellent, Naru-chan," Bou-san clapped him on the back. "We might solve the mystery sooner than I expected. Matsuzaki-sensei, what do you have to contribute?"

Ayako who had been focused on checking her red painted nails came up with what was a ridiculous suggestion in Naru's opinion.

"The Seven Wonders are clearly the work of an Earthbound spirit."

Naru sighed. He did not see the purpose of adding her to the group if she was going to be like that all the time. On the other hand it was always useful to have a doctor around and he didn't want her to get annoyed at being left out and tell anyone else about the investigation.

"When is everyone else free to go to the school house again?" he asked.

"Shibuya-kun, don't you remember that pile of homework we got in Biology and Maths?" Keiko complained. "It's going to take at least three nights to finish it all."

Naru felt a small amount of pity towards those that weren't as smart as him and couldn't do homework as quickly as he could. He wanted to investigate the school house again as soon as they all could so he offered his help.

"If you like, we can meet after school tomorrow so we can help each other out," he offered. "We can all be free on the following night."

His mother would be proud of him. In his opinion he was becoming more considerate the longer he was in Japan.

"I like that idea," Michiru agreed. "Shibuya-kun is top in everything except from Physical Education so it would be great if he could help us."

Naru inwardly sighed at the Physical Education comment. It wasn't the end of the world that he wasn't the best in the class at Physical Education. Everyone had their one weak subject.

He and Mai stayed behind after everyone else had left.

"Mai, can you describe the circumstances under which you saw someone that looked just like me?" he requested.

Understandably Mai was a little confused. Wasn't it him that she had seen? Or was some trick to make her believe that she hadn't seen him feeding ducks? If so, he really was going to great lengths to hide his kinder side.

"I was on my way home from school after telling you the best place to buy tea. I stopped off at the park to see the ducks and I saw someone that I thought was you feeding the ducks. I saw their face and he looked just like you," she related the story. "When I called your name out, the person ran away. Are you saying that the person wasn't you?"

The fact that Mai had seen the person's face and still thought it was him clinched the matter for Naru. It had to be Gene. The only other person with his rather good looking face was Gene.

"No. It was not me. What was he wearing?"

"Jeans and a red jumper, I think," she scrunched up her face as she cast her mind back.

If Naru recalled correctly his twin did have a red jumper. It had to have been him.

"Ah!" Mai said suddenly. "Of course, it couldn't have been you. Even if you had driven home, changed clothes and driven to the park you still couldn't have been there by the lake when I arrived. I'm sorry for believing it was you."

She bowed her head and Naru couldn't help but smile kindly at her.

"As long as you don't tell anyone else about it, I'll forget that you ever believed I was the type of person to feed ducks."

"Thanks, Naru," she cheered up instantly. "Why did the person run away?"

That was a sensible question. Gene would have had no reason to run away from Mai. He was a sociable person unlike him. Why was Gene even in Japan? Like the Seven Wonders, there were facts that didn't add up. However he could provide a plausible answer that would keep Mai from wondering.

"Mai, you called them a narcissist. They didn't know you so they thought you were strange and ran away to get away from you."

* * *

 

Three days later after a session of homework and snipes from Naru about Mai's intelligence, they were standing outside the school house again waiting for the monk to unlock the padlock. The differences this time were the lack of rain, the presence of Ayako and the equipment they were all carrying.

Naru wished that Lin could have been with him to help him carry the equipment and set up, but it would cause too many questions to be asked. Instead he had arrived early and he and Lin had lifted the equipment out the van and placed it in a pile on the pavement outside the school.

Bou-san opened the door and held the door open for the rest of them to enter. The equipment was dumped in a mass by the door.

"The important things is to set up those powerful lights that Naru-chan brought. It would be great if we could see properly in here," he said.

"We need a base too," Naru reminded him.

The equipment was carried in to the most empty classroom. Mai and her friends helped by dusting the bookshelves along the back where the equipment was going to be kept. Ayako half heartedly joined in just as they were finishing.

"Do we set up the equipment now?" the doctor asked with the most interest she had displayed all evening.

Bou-san waggled his finger at her, clearly enjoying having more knowledge about ghost hunting than her.

"We don't actually know where to place the cameras and microphones so we can't start. We need to guess where the likely epicentre of ghost activity will be."

"We also need to make a floor plan," the narcissist added. "Have you not done anything like this before?"

Ayako glared and retreated into a sulky silence.

"To do this quickly we need to split into pairs and each pair takes a floor," Naru ordered. "I'll go with Mai. You can argue between yourselves for the other pairs. Ideally there should be one adult in each pair."

Out of the corner of his eye he spotted Keiko and Michiru play a round of rock, paper, scissors. He understood the purpose when the loser, Keiko paired up with the priestess.

Mai and Naru took the first floor again due to their familiarity with it. The developing psychic wondered why Naru had chosen her. She had started to think that he wasn't as bad as he had appeared on his first day. His genuine smile that she had seen a couple of days ago when she had apologised had been very pleasant to look at.

They started at one end of the floor and counted the number of classrooms on each side of the corridor. Naru came up with a rough drawing once they reached the shoe lockers by the entrance and they continued along the other corridor in the same fashion.

When they reached the science labs Naru debated which one would be the best to place a camera and microphone in. Under ideal conditions with his usual supply of equipment, the answer would be all of them, but the amount of equipment was limited. He would have to make an educated guess or ask someone with psychic abilities. His eyes fell on Mai.

"Mai, which of the science laboratories would have the most spiritual activity?"

Even in the dim light he could see that Mai was giving him a strange look.

"Shouldn't you know that?"

Naru decided to rephrase his question. "Close your eyes, spin around on the spot three times and point randomly."

Mai obliged him and spun around with her eyes closed. Her arm ended up pointing at a lab four doors down. Naru noted it down. If there weren't any results he would just move the camera somewhere else. He definitely knew he was going to put a camera and microphone in the prep room where the bent spoons were.

"We are done here. Let's go back to the base," he said and they returned to the designated classroom together.

The room was empty and Naru assumed that none of the other pairs had finished yet.

"I was going to bring a kettle and make some tea, but there was enough equipment to carry so it can wait until another time," he said after realising he was craving some caffeine.

"Did you get hold of your foreign tea then?" Mai questioned.

Naru had sent Lin into Shibuya to find the shop in question and buy the tea. Lin had complained about being squashed in a train until Naru had made him some tea. Lin liked his English tea as much as he did.

The narcissist was about to answer Mai when he noticed that her eyes had gone wide with fright and were focused on something above him. He looked up and saw something glowingly purple permeating through the ceiling. As he watched, it became clearer that it was a feminine spirit with long hair and threatening red eyes.

He pushed Mai behind him and she gripped his arm tightly in return. He didn't complain about being touched, instead his attention was on the spirit whose body was now visible. He followed the spirit's gaze and observed that it was focused on Mai and not him.

Mai was the target.

 


	11. Chapter 11

**Some Wonderful Day:**

**Chapter 11:**

Naru's mind went through all of the possible options. He could stare the spirit down, he could call for help or he could get rid of it with his PK. Using his PK was risky because Mai and everyone else would discuss it after and someone was going to connect the dots and deduce he was Oliver Davis. Also, although he was convinced that Gene was nearby in Japan and not in England he couldn't risk using his PK without him.

The spirit began to pull something out of her mouth causing Mai to scream and tighten her grip on him even more.

"Naru!"

Fortunately for that conflicted Naru and the terrified Mai, Bou-san came crashing in and took stock of the situation. He whipped out a string of wooden beads from his pocket and shouted:

"Naumaku san manda bazaradan kan!"

The spirit disappeared and Naru internally breathed a sigh of relief. If the spirit had attacked Mai he would have unleashed his PK without caring about the consequences, but he was relieved that the option had been taken away from him.

"What was that?" Michiru asked from her position in the doorway.

"A spirit. It was targeting Mai for some reason," Naru said.

He looked over at Mai who was sitting on the floor with her injured legs stretched out.

"My legs gave out when Bou-san came in," she explained breathlessly when he shot her a questioning glance. "Thank you, Bou-san."

Bou-san grinned at her. "Do you believe I'm a real monk now?"

She gave him a thumbs up as Keiko and Ayako arrived

"What was that scream for?" Ayako demanded.

Naru explained to everyone what had happened whilst the school doctor checked Mai in case she had reinjured her legs when she fell over.

"This does prove that there is something going on here that needs to be solved. There is a chance that Mai will be targeted by a spirit again so we need to find the source of that attack."

"If it's any use, here's our floor plan," Bou-san handed it to Naru and Ayako shoved her unfinished one at him too.

Naru took them and labelled where he wanted the cameras to be placed which were the locations that matched with the Seven Mysteries. They couldn't place anything outside because of the weather. It reminded him that they had yet to check the well and the statue. His attention was diverted by overhearing Ayako interrogating Mai.

"Taniyama-san, have you desecrated anything here?"

Mai shook her head vehemently.

"You must have done something to anger a spirit," the doctor pressed her for information.

"I was the one that found the bent spoons," she admitted.

Naru knew that her discovery of the spoons wasn't the answer. He had actually touched them unlike her and had performed psychometry on one. If anyone was going to be targeted, it should be him and not Mai. Why was it her and not him? He had to work that out before the spirit returned.

"Taniyama-chan, I think it's for the best if you stay with me because Naru-chan doesn't have the ability to exorcise anything and I have severe doubts about the old woman," Bou-san told her.

Bou-san's comments about his abilities made him suck in an annoyed breath. He would enjoy watching the monk's face if he witnessed his PK. He reminded himself that keeping his identity secret was more important that getting one up on the monk.

"Is Mai-chan in danger because she got caught in the trap and fell down the stairs?" Michiru asked suddenly.

Naru knew why she had had asked it that. It couldn't be the right answer; that wasn't how spirits worked. There had to be something else.

"That isn't a strong enough stimulus," he said and turned to look at Mai again just in time to witness the redheaded priestess whispering in her ear. "What are you two doing?"

Ayako straightened up and looked at him huffily.

"I was giving her some helpful advice," Ayako snapped at him. "It's something that you have never thought of."

Mai was quick to agree with her. "It was helpful , there's no need to worry."

"I wasn't worried," Naru was quick to deny it and noticed that she was trying to stand up."Are your legs hurting?"

She used her hands to push herself up off the floor only to flop down again.

"Just a little. My legs still feel like jelly."

Naru sighed and held out his hands towards her. He was grateful when she didn't question him and gripped them, allowing him to pull her up. He only realised what he had done when she was standing next to him. He had been willingly helpful and had touched someone that he wasn't related to. His mother would have a field day when she heard about it. He was brought out of his internal monologue by thanking him quietly.

"Thank you, Naru."

He couldn't think of anything to say in return so he changed the subject.

"Can we go to check the well and the statue? We could find a hint of why Mai is being targeted there."

"Good idea, Naru-chan," the monk complimented him. "We can do that now. The sooner the better for Taniyama-chan's sake."

"The well is around the side on the left and the statue is at the back," Ayako added. "For the four students who have never seen the statue before, it's a life-size winged figure. The myth says that it's really a human encased in stone."

Mai shivered when she heard that and Naru simply raised his eyebrows. It was a generic story, but it had just the right hint of macabre to scare anyone sensitive that heard it.

"I didn't know that part," Bou-san admitted. "Since you know it so well, you can check it. I'll visit the well with Taniyama-chan and Naru-chan. You can go with the girls."

***

Mai stumbled through the long grass that surrounded the old school house and pushed tree branches out her face. It was hard to see where she was going even with a flashlight as the shrubbery had been allowed to grow wildly.

It became easier once they got closer to the well because some of the grass had been trod on and flattened. Mai silently thanked the person who had made it easier for them before she realised the significance.

It meant that someone had been near the well recently. She followed the monk and Naru until they found the well. They had also noticed the signs of someone having been there within the past few days.

"It's strange that someone has been here and not in the school house. The school house was in the exact state we had left it in last time," Bou-san observed. "It is helpful though, it means there is a significance to the well."

Between the three of them they removed the cover on the well. Their task was made simpler due to the fact that it had not been put back properly and only needed a push in the right direction. They all shone their flashlights down the pitch black interior.

"I think I can see something down at the bottom," Naru announced. "Is there a way of getting down there safely?"

Mai shone her flashlight around the sides of the well and found a short set of metal rungs embedded in the stone.

"Sort of. They don't go very far down."

She leaned in to look further and saw a glowing ball of light at the bottom. She squinted to get a closer look and felt apprehensive when she realised it could be the spirit from earlier. The ball of light began to form a human form that she recognised.

She gulped and steeled herself. The monk and Naru were discussing going to get a ladder from somewhere and go all the way down or to wait another night. She made the decision to try what Ayako had told her to get rid of the spirit. She couldn't rely on the monk all the time.

So she raised one hand and arranged her fingers like Ayako had showed her.

"Rin. Pyou-"

As she chanted she became aware that the inside of the well was closer than it had previously looked and her feet were no longer on the ground. She had leaned in too far and lost her balance.

Fortunately Naru had noticed and caught hold of her wrist as she fell in so she was suspended in mid air with her only support being Naru. If he lost his grip she would fall all the way to the bottom. She cautiously looked up at him and saw the signs of strain on his face.

"Mai, can you reach the rungs from here? Bou-san, help me."

She watched the monk steady Naru first before she reached out and held onto one of the rungs. Naru let go off her when both of her feet and one hand were on the rungs.

"Mai, climb up now," he ordered. "Hurry up in case any of them break."

She nodded, too afraid to speak and climbed up one level. Then she heard a terrifying creaking noise. The rung she was clinging onto was slowly coming loose from the side of the well.

"Naru!" she screamed in desperation. She was going to fall to the bottom and if she didn't lose consciousness on impact, she would have a spirit for company. Mai closed her eyes as she felt the one her feet were on give way.

Then she felt something change and she opened her eyes. The rung beneath her feet detached fully and fell down the well, but the one her hands were gripping was no longer straining and coming away from the wall.

"Mai, I told you to hurry up before any more break," Naru instructed and she hurriedly climbed up and out of the well whilst Bou-san got rid of the spirit.

"Taniyama-chan, never do that again," the monk told her. "If you had fallen all the way to the bottom the consequences would be unpleasant for all of us."

Mai bowed her head. "I'm sorry. I was trying to use what Matsuzaki-sensei taught me to get rid of spirits. I don't want to have to rely on someone else all the time."

"What did she teach you?" Naru questioned, he needed to keep Mai's mind off wondering what had happened in the well. On the spur of the moment he had used some PK to save her and was concerned she might have noticed. She was good at noticing things.

"The Nine Cuts."

The worried expression on the monk's face changed to one of understanding.

"I see. It was a good idea to teach you that since you attract so much trouble. I can teach you a few things too."

Whilst this conversation was going on the narcissist was shining the flashlight down again to check if what he had sighted earlier in the well was still there.

"Once you have taught Mai to get herself out of trouble, find a ladder that will go all the way down," he said.

In the end the monk found a suitable ladder in a store cupboard in the school house and made Naru help him transport it outside. He volunteered to be the one to go down in case the spirit returned. When he came back up he was clutching a small human shaped piece of wood with Mai Taniyama written on it.

 


	12. Chapter 12

**Some Wonderful Day:**

**Chapter 12:**

"It's a hitogata," Naru proclaimed once everyone was gathered around the well. "Mai, should I explain for your benefit?"

"How kind of you," Mai scowled. "It's not just me, Keiko-chan and Michiru-chan don't know either."

"The shape of the hitogata represents the person being cursed and is used like a voodoo doll," Naru explained.

"It does explain why Taniyama-chan suddenly started being targeted," Bou-san agreed and took a closer look. "I wonder why it's her."

Strangely enough Mai wanted to know too. Investigating the Seven Wonders had never been her idea and she ended up being targeted for it. Naru was the ringleader and Bou-san to an extent- Naru always seemed to know what to do. Why did it have to be her?

"Before you start discussing that, perhaps you should consider that the spirit can still come back as long as that thing is intact," Ayako interrupted. "Taniyama-san lives alone and I don't think she wants the spirit to return whilst she is on her own."

Mai shook at the thought of the spirit returning whilst she was alone in her bedroom in the dark. Admittedly she had been taught how to get rid of it, but she wanted to avoid seeing it in the first place.

"Of course," Bou-san said. "Sorry, Taniyama-san. It's much more important to protect you. We need to take a photo of it first before we destroy it. Then it will stop bothering you."

"That would be much appreciated," Naru said and closed the conversation. "It's getting late now, we can meet up and discuss everything properly tomorrow."

Lin picked him up once everyone else had departed and for some reason was in a bad mood. He didn't even greet him which was unusual behaviour. The omnouji normally asked if he had solved the case every time he picked him up. Lin only spoke when they returned to the apartment.

"You did something stupidly dangerous tonight, did you not?"

Naru jerked in surprise. "How did you know?"

He realised as he said that he had given himself away and Lin narrowed his eyes.

"Perhaps I should join your team of investigators."

The thought of his bodyguard meeting the monk and priestess didn't feel right to Naru. Lin's personality would clash with the teachers even more than his did.

"No. I will not do anything irresponsible again," he promised fervently to avoid Lin joining the investigation. "The dangerous part is over with now."

"If you say so," Lin looked sceptical of his promise. "What did actually happen?"

Naru blinked. "Don't you know what happened?"

Lin shook his head with a slight amused smile on his face. "I sensed you had done something you shouldn't have done so I tricked you into admitting it."

The narcissist sighed. It was difficult to get things past him. He should have known that Lin would detect that he was feeling conflicted over using his PK to save Mai. Undoubtedly she would have been gravely injured if she had fell and he was convinced Gene was in Japan so he could use it without a negative consequence on his body. He had also felt Gene exchange power with him although he hadn't needed it as it only took a small amount of PK. Therefore Gene was certainly nearby in Japan. The problem was that Gene was not supposed to be in Japan.

He gave Lin a summary of the case so far, making sure to leave out the death he had seen with his psychometry. If Lin found out that a death was involved he would ban him from investigating or insist on joining in. Naru didn't want either option.

"It does appear strange that Taniyama-san has been the target. You insist that it cannot be the spoons because you touched them too. It must be the incident with the stairs then," Lin concluded.

"That's what I think, but I can't understand why," Naru groaned. "The Seven Wonders are turning out to be much harder than I anticipated."

"It does sound complex. Would you like to ask the Professor for help?"

Briefly Naru considered going along with it and asking his father. It would look much better if he solved it himself and he wanted independence from his parents.

Lin saw the look on his face. "I suppose not. I can give you something to consider though. How did the culprit know Taniyama's name?"

When he heard that Naru realised that Lin was absolutely correct. The culprit had to be connected to the school to find out her full name. How had he missed that?

He yawned right after thinking that and was sent to bed by Lin who claimed that sleep would clear his mind.

* * *

 

Across Tokyo his twin was still awake discussing the night's events with Madoka. Both were in their pyjamas around the kotatsu. Madoka was drying her hair off, having taken a bath after returning home from the school house.

"I watched it happen. He must have used his PK; his facial expression was a giveaway," Madoka said as her phone beeped with a message which she checked. "Lin says that Noll admitted to putting himself in danger to save Taniyama-san."

"I sensed it too and I sent him some power too just in case- I didn't know what he wanted it for," Gene added.

The pink haired woman looked at him thoughtfully. "He definitely knows you are nearby then."

"Mai must have told him about seeing someone that looked like him and he would have realised it was me. We'll have to move carefully now."

Madoka's phone made a noise again and she read the text message.

"Lin says Noll is more focused on the school house mystery and Taniyama-san than on anything else. Either Noll is trying to make it look that way or it's true. He might not make an effort to track you down until after the case is solved. Do you know who the culprit is in the case?"

Gene shook his head regretfully. "I have never had a dream involving the culprit yet. If I had, I would have found a way to drop Noll some hints before anyone got hurt."

Madoka leaned over and ruffled his hair. "I know you would. Cheer up and drink your hot chocolate. Do you know how much I had to hunt for your favourite British brand?"

Gene grinned and picked up his mug. Whilst his twin had sent Lin on a search for his favourite tea, he had got Madoka to track down his favourite hot chocolate.

The next day at school was difficult for Naru as he spent most of the morning yawning. He had spent the night and early morning thinking about the case and then Gene. He had tried their psychic connection to no avail. However the connection had been blocked a week before he had left England and Gene had avoided him as much as possible so it had been unlikely to work now.

So he had two mysteries to solve. The Seven Wonders and Eugene Davis. At the moment the first one appeared easier. There was little to work with for the second mystery. The only thing he could do was hope that he would randomly bump into his twin in Tokyo and demand the truth.

The Seven Wonders was his priority and Mai had already been injured because he hadn't solved it yet.

As per the usual routine they all gathered in the music room. Yasuhara was absent due to his school council duties this time so there were six of them. As soon as they were all present Naru brought up the subject of the culprit finding out Mai's name for the hitogata.

Bou-san was impressed at his deduction and Naru neglected to mention that he hadn't been the person to come up with it.

"You really are impressive, Naru-chan."

Naru sensed an insult in the offing when Ayako caught his eye.

"If he was impressive he would have found the culprit already."

The narcissist acknowledged that with a tightening of his lips. "Mai is the only person out of all of us that has signs of being in the old school house," he said.

Mai's forehead creased in confusion before she realised what he meant. "The cuts and bruises on my legs from falling down the stairs!"

"Exactly. I suspect that was the function of the trap."

Bou-san leaned against his desk and sighed.

"Practically the whole population of the school could have seen Mai's legs. It's been a few days since she fell and a lot of people have seen her. It could be anyone."

That garnered a smirk from Ayako who poked the monk in the arm with a red manicured fingernail.

"You told us yourself last night. You said the rungs in the well used to go all the way down to the bottom which hints that it was used a number of years ago and the school house closed down years ago. You can eliminate the students."

Despite himself Naru was impressed by her deduction. Like Lin she didn't miss much although she needed to work on her personality. He conveniently forgot that his personality could be just as bad.

"It's a teacher...?" Michiru said unsurely.

"There's other members of staff like the security guard and the school principal," Mai pointed out.

"Exactly. We can narrow it down to an extent, but we may have to investigate each one individually. Mai, what lessons have we had this week and with that teacher?" he requested. "The culprit must teach Mai."

Mai felt around in her school bag for the notebook containing her timetable and was stopped by an apologetic looking Bou-san.

"Sorry Naru-chan, that won't help. All the teachers know about Mai's injuries."

Naru gave him a doubtful glance. "How?"

"Your homeroom teacher announced it in the teacher's office the other day. He raised it as a concern because we all know about your situation so all the teachers know that Taniyama-chan got injured."

The narcissist sighed. Wherever it could, this case was making itself complicated.

"For the moment we need to find out which teachers were teaching in the school house when it closed down. Yasuhara-san may also have some information for us," Naru said.

As he spoke a familiar student president with glasses poked his head in.

"We're having a break at the moment so I popped by to say that I have found a few things to help. I've got time on Saturday afternoon. We can meet somewhere, but not at school."

"How about the cafe we went together before?" Mai suggested.

Naru glared at him. What kind of student president went to cafes with younger female students?

Yasuhara completely misunderstood his glare. "It's okay Shibuya-san, I'll pay."

Keiko leaned over to whisper in Michiru's ear. "I bet that wasn't what he was really concerned about."

Michiru's response was to roll her eyes. "Everyone can see that apart from the people involved. Mai-chan is so clueless sometimes. It's the same for Shibuya-kun."

 


	13. Chapter 13

**Some Wonderful Day:**

**Chapter 13:**

After their morning lessons Naru followed Mai, Keiko and Michiru to a colourful looking cafe twenty minutes away from the school. The school doctor and the music teacher were unable to join them due to a teacher meeting at the school.

Yasuhara was already there waiting for them at a large table in a secluded corner. Mai bounded happily towards him and took the seat next to him. Naturally Naru took the one on her other side.

"Mai-chan! They still do the drink you love here," the student president said happily.

Naru picked up a menu and ran his eyes down it. If Yasuhara was paying he would get something a little more expensive than usual. The more expensive items were completely unrecognisable so he played it safe with a cup of Darjeeling.

Once everyone had their order Yasuhara got down to business. In between him and Naru, Mai was contentedly drinking a summer fruits smoothie which Naru took note of for a reason unknown to him. He played it off as taking notice of a way to keep Mai quiet and happy.

"I asked around my family and their friends and gleaned some things. One of the most interesting things is the missing people."

At the mention of missing people Naru's mind flicked back to the vision he had seen with his psychometry.

"Missing people?" Keiko asked.

The student president produced a notebook and found the relevant page.

"There's four missing students in the past 26 years. They were believed to have run away or committed suicide. The only thing known is that they never returned home after school and their bodies have never been found anywhere."

Naru frowned. Things were starting to fit together like a puzzle although he didn't have all the pieces yet.

"Do you have their names?" he enquired and pulled out his own notebook and pen.

"John Brown, Masako Hara, Chiaki Kasai and Tomoaki Sakauchi. I've heard some interesting stories about them."

"What sort of stories?" Mai questioned fearfully.

Yasuhara beamed at her. "Don't be so scared Mai-chan. You can use them for ghost stories after you've finished investigating this."

Mai looked at him doubtfully. Were they ever going to finish investigating the Seven Wonders? They had yet to see anything besides the bent spoons that matched the stories.

"According to rumour it's Masako Hara's reflection in the girls' toilets and John Brown's body was the thirteenth stair after someone stepped on it in the dark and then his body was encased in stone to become the statue outside," Yasuhara said in a low voice.

Naru's interest was caught. Now he was starting to gain some real information about the case. Hopefully it would go somewhere.

Yasuhara continued on as soon as Naru's notetaking had caught up.

"Chiaki Kasai is supposed to be the girl hanging herself in the Biology lab and it's Sakauchi's severed hand in the prep room."

Mai took a long sip of her smoothie and tried not to visualise any of those things. It was all too easy to picture them when she had been to the places mentioned.

"With those rumours it's no surprise that parents got worried and the school house was closed down," Keiko commented.

A theory began to swirl around in Naru's mind. The culprit could have killed those four students for reasons currently unknown and the school principal had closed down the school house to cover it up.

"Do you have any more information about those four?" he requested.

The student president turned a few pages in his notebook.

"John Brown was the first to go missing and was an exchange student living with a host family. He was only at school for a short time before he went missing so he didn't have any friends. One year later Masako Hara disappeared. She was a little more popular and her closest friend told me that she had been acting strangely before she disappeared, saying that she could channel spirits like a medium," Yasuhara said. "Two years later it was Chiaki Kasai, she was famous at school for being able to bend spoons and right before she went missing she lost her ability and was agitated and worried."

The hand Naru had seen in his vision bending a spoon had to have been Chiaki Kasai's. It also meant that she was dead. If she was dead, it was almost certain the other three were. It was a sobering thought.

"Sakauchi had an interest in ghosts and he was the one that started the rumour about the shadow of the girl hanging herself being Chiaki Kasai. The teachers found he was the source of the rumour and he had a lot of detentions. Shortly after that, he disappeared as well. A month after his disappearance, the school house was closed down."

Naru wrote that down and tried to piece it together. A teacher had killed John Brown and waited a year before Masako Hara and then another two years before Chiaki Kasai. It appeared that Sakauchi was the odd one out. The most likely reason for his death was his part in creating the mystery of Kasai's death by saying she had hanged herself in the Biology lab. Presumably the culprit didn't want the disappearances to be tied to the school.

"That was some useful information," he said to Yasuhara. "It's more than Bou-san and Matsuzaki-sensei know anyway."

Yasuhara pushed his glasses up his noise and grinned secretively.

"Unlike those two, I'm well connected. I used my family because they went to our school over 20 years ago and asked them to get in contact with their old school friends. Some people weren't willing to talk, but I managed to get some facts from them."

"Did you use your charm?" Michiru teased.

Naru tutted. What kind of conversation was this? Admittedly Yasuhara had collected some useful facts, but did his charm had be brought up? His distaste of the conversation was increased by Mai joining in.

"I've seen you use it on crabby teachers before, it works really well."

"If you have good manners and ask politely, most people will open up. If they don't, some charm in required," Yasuhara informed her. "Shibuya-kun has a pretty face so he could charm information out of people too."

That statement surprised Naru. He was aware that his good looks did disarm people and make them stare at him, however he wasn't sure he could charm things out of them that well. It would probably only work on shallow teenage girls that only cared about looks.

"You two should have a competition," Keiko clapped her hands. "You can try it on Mai-chan, she's immune to good looking people."

Naru looked at Keiko in horror. He was not participating in something silly and pointless like this. That was until Yasuhara agreed enthusiastically and got Mai to agree to it.

"You both need to charm Mai-chan into giving you the rest of her smoothie," Keiko instructed."She wouldn't even let me have a sip so she won't give it up easily."

"I don't get a chance to drink this often," Mai argued. "You drank most of it last time I let you have a taste. I guess I could give up a sip to Naru or Yasuhara-senpai."

Yasuhara stretched his arms and cracked his knuckles which irked Naru to no end.

"Let's do this. What are the rules?"

Keiko and Michiru began to whisper to each other whilst the other three waited with Mai wondering what her friends were up to.

"The rules are that you have 30 seconds each to persuade Mai-chan. You can't touch her or forcibly grab the smoothie. Yasuhara-senpai will go first."

Keiko got out her phone and set the timer. "Start!"

Naru watched as Yasuhara leaned in closer to Mai so their faces were less than 10cm apart and he winked at her before making heart shape with his hands. The narcissist blinked again to check that he was seeing it correctly. No, he was definitely seeing a student president making a heart shape. Well, he wasn't going to end up doing that.

"Mai-chan," Yasuhara whispered. "Am I dazzling you yet?"

Naru smirked when Mai shook her head firmly. She wasn't that susceptible to Yasuhara's charms.

"Ten seconds left," Keiko called.

Yasuhara removed his glasses theatrically and winked again. Naru snorted, the student president's eyes looked much smaller without glasses. That move was not going to charm Mai. He was completely correct.

"Three seconds left!"

In the final three seconds Yasuhara didn't manage to charm Mai at all which pleased Naru until he realised it was his turn next.

"Shibuya-kun, are you ready?" Michiru asked.

Naru turned in his chair to look at Mai. He would succeed where Yasuhara hadn't and wouldn't waste time by winking.

"I'm ready."

"Start!"

He regarded Mai carefully and realised there was no time for calculations. He would have to use his instincts and make it up as he went along. He had two weapons at his disposal that Yasuhara had not: his ability to talk to Mai without honorifics and his much superior smile.

"Mai," he breathed quietly.

Her eyes snapped to his face immediately and a smile spread across his face. He waited to check that Mai was transfixed as the sight of his smile before moving in for the kill.

"Mai, can I try your smoothie?"

It was handed to him and he smiled even wider.

"Stop!" Michiru exclaimed. "How many seconds was that?"

"Fifteen seconds," Keiko read off her phone.

"I was beaten," Yasuhara lamented dramatically by covering his face with his hands. "Shibuya-kun is more charming than me."

"Of course," Naru acknowledged. "Can we get back to a serious subject now?"

Instantly the student president returned to normal. "Is there anything else you need to know?"

"Which teachers were teaching at the school 26 years ago and are still there?"

"I thought of that too. There are three that still teach there: Matsuyama-sensei, Kaneyuki-sensei and Ubusuna-sensei."

Mai recognised those names and remembered that they were all fairly old teachers. Matsuyama was her Japanese literature teacher, Kaneyuki taught Maths and Ubusuna was her Biology teacher.

The narcissist copied the names down whilst Mai checked the time on the clock on the wall.

"I'm going to go now. I need to buy something at the supermarket, it's on sale today. Yasuhara-san, thank you for the drink."

"Anytime, Mai-chan."

Naru packed his notebook away and stood up. "I need to get something too. I will join you."

He walked outside with her whilst the others watched. As soon as the pair were out of sight, Yasuhara turned to Keiko and Michiru.

"Are you two match making?" he asked suspiciously.

Keiko had the decency to look guilty. "They aren't going to realise it on their own and I noticed Shibuya-kun treating you like a romantic rival."

Yasuhara smiled mysteriously. "I had noticed too. We can group together to plan how to bring them closer together."

 


	14. Chapter 14

**Some Wonderful Day:**

**Chapter 14:**

Mai cast a surreptitious glance at the black haired teenager walking alongside her. They were on their way back from the supermarket and she had found several things strange about his actions. Firstly the fact that he had even accompanied her in the first place, his inability to name what he had come to the supermarket for and the product he had purchased in the end: a bag of oranges. She had never seen him eat fruit before. Usually at lunchtime he had a very plain bento that was mainly rice. To her it felt like he had picked the oranges up on the spur of the moment, especially considering that when she had asked him he had looked clueless and had then picked up the closest thing.

If he hadn't really need anything, why was he with her?

One of her glances ended with their eyes meeting and that was when Naru spoke.

"As you are aware, you have precognitive dreams," he began. "I thought we could try an experiment."

That caught her attention, she had been wondering about her abilities.

"What would that experiment be?"

"When you to sleep tonight, try thinking about the case. It may help you have a dream related to it."

Mai waved her arm. "I'll try my best."

Naru's serious expression faded and was replaced with a slight smile. "If nothing comes of it, do not worry; we can still solve the case without it."

She felt reassured by that. Normally the more pressure she was under, the worse she did.

"Why did you make an excuse to come shopping with me? Was it so you could ask me to do that?"

Curiosity got the better of her.

Naru's eyes flickered, confirming her suspicions. "You are more smart than I originally thought."

Mai resisted an urge to elbow him in the ribs. Was that a Naru way of complimenting her? If it was, he really needed to brush up on his manners.

"You are right though. I did not want to ask you in front of the others. The so called adults would complain and it would place an expectation on you to succeed."

The psychic shot him another look. He was being strangely considerate today and it felt nice.

"Thank you, Naru."

The tips of Naru's ears turned pink and she giggled. It was obvious that Naru became embarrassed when he was thanked for showing consideration. The fact that he changed the subject directly afterwards was another hint.

"I'm getting picked up outside school again. Are you fine carrying everything home?"

They parted ways outside the school where a black van was waiting for Naru. As Mai walked home she began to wonder about Naru's family. He never talked about them, but he was a private person and never divulged personal information anyway. Perhaps his parents were well off; the equipment he had provided was high quality. Then she started wondering about the lookalike she had seen in the park.

As she thought about that, she realised that she was right outside the park. She could have a peek inside and see if the ducks were still fine. It wasn't to see if the Naru lookalike was there at all.

Much to her surprise there was someone feeding the ducks by the lake. Like she had done before, she hid before approaching in order to observe the person. The person was black haired and male and wearing a rain coat, all she needed to see was the face. She waited for him to turn around so she could see his face. Her opportunity arrived when one of the ducks waddled past him and he turned to go after it.

His face looked exactly like Naru's. Only this time she knew he wasn't Naru.

She crept out of her hiding place and walked towards the lake. She didn't have a genuine reason to approach him, but something told her she should talk to him so she did.

His back was facing her as she approached and he turned his head when she accidently kicked a stone. The expression on his face was strange. At first it was surprised and then it became fearful. Mai wondered why. Was he afraid that she was going to call him a narcissist again?

"Hello," she greeted. "I don't know if you remember, but I called you a narcissist last week when you were here feeding ducks."

The boy looked completely lost for words.

"Please don't run away again, I just wanted to apologise," she continued on. "I'm sorry and I hope I didn't freak you out."

He stared at her for a few seconds before answering in a voice that was eerily similar to a certain narcissist's.

"No, it was just a surprise. There was no real harm done."

"That's a relief," Mai smiled. "I mistook you for someone who is very narcissistic. When I told him about seeing someone that looked like him, he said you ran away because I essentially called you a narcissist."

The boy looked amused. "Is there really someone that looks like me?"

Mai nodded and he smiled at her.

"You have me intrigued. Can you tell me about this person?" he pointed to the bench by the lake. "We can sit over there."

Mai saw no harm in talking to him. It wasn't like Naru was ever going to find out what she had told this person about him.

"What's your name?" she asked soon as they had sat down. "You don't have to tell me your full name."

The boy looked deep in thought for a moment before he answered.

"You can call me Gene without honorifics."

Gene was a strange name to Mai as it clearly wasn't Japanese whereas the boy looked to be Japanese. She decided that she wouldn't be too nosy to a complete stranger and she wouldn't ask about it.

"You can call me Mai-chan," she offered. "It's nice to meet you, Gene."

"Likewise. Do you come here often?" he paused. "That wasn't intended to be a pick up line by the way."

Mai marvelled at how he looked exactly like Naru, but his personality was the direct opposite. The idea of Naru using a pick up line on her was laughable.

"I wouldn't have thought it was. I come here sometimes when I've had a stressful day. It's relaxing here."

She looked out onto the lake where the weak autumnal sun was bouncing off it in a pleasant way and the orange fallen leaves around it.

"It is nice," he agreed. "So what's this narcissist person like? Since he apparently looks like me, I need to know."

Mai thought about Naru. He had been a complete stuck up prat on his first day and had continued that theme for the first week. After that he had been different and he had saved her several times during the case so far. He had also participated in that game against Yasuhara. Being the focus of attention in that game had been a mortifying experience for her.

"He's an absolute narcissist and he's very clever. The problem is that he knows it and flaunts it by making nasty comments about my intelligence."

Gene nodded and his mouth twitched for some reason. It looked as if he was fighting an urge to smile.

"Does he have any positive traits?"

Again Mai thought of how he had saved her and showed concern for her wellbeing earlier.

"When I'm in trouble, he's the first person to react and try to save me," she said hesitantly. "He's not so bad now."

That produced a knowing smile from Gene.

"Sometimes people are not as bad as they seem once you get to know them."

"I know. I was with him just now and he asked me to do something weird."

Gene's eyes widened. "What kind of weird thing?"

"I'm supposed to have dreams of the future and he wants me to have one deliberately about a case we are working on."

"I see," Gene said. "Just try your best and see what comes of it."

"That's what I was planning on doing," Mai answered. "I've told you all about the narcissist and I have some homework to do so I will go now."

She picked her school bag and shopping bag off the bench, ready to leave.

"Mai-chan, before you leave I have another question for you."

Mai paused in her movements. "What is it?"

Gene looked around secretively and leaned forward. "Do you like him? As in romantically."

A blush spread up Mai's cheeks and her body temperature got hotter. She had only thought of him as a friend so far.

"I-I've never considered that," she stammered.

Gene didn't reply to that and they exchanged goodbyes. As she was walking away he called after her.

"That blush was enough of an answer, Mai-chan."

* * *

Gene's words resounded through Mai's head for the rest of the day, causing her to become aware that she liked Naru more than she had thought. It was only when she changed into her pyjamas and got into bed were those words replaced by Naru's instead.

She was supposed to think of the case as she went to sleep. That was easy in theory. She thought about how eerie the school house looked on the night they had first entered and how creepy it looked inside when your only source of light was a flashlight. She remembered falling down the stairs and the hitogata with her name on. Mai shivered at the thought of the spirit returning and appearing above her bed.

The names of the missing people flashed through her mind and she remembered Naru and Yasuhara vying for her smoothie. Naru's smile...

She shook her head, she wasn't supposed to be thinking about things like that, she had to think of the case.

Her eyelids were becoming harder to keep open and her body felt heavier. She had to think of the case. John Brown. Masako Hara. Chiaki Kasai-

Her view suddenly changed from being the darkness of her closed eyes to a small room. She stretched her arms out and realised she was in her normal body. In the dreams she remembered she usually felt like she was an observer watching scenes play out and wasn't actually involved.

The psychic used that to her advantage to explore her surroundings. The pink duvet on the single bed indicated that the owner was a girl and the titles of the textbooks on the shelf above her desk suggested that the owner was a high school student. That was all fine, but it would help if she had a name. She picked up an exercise book lying on the desk and read the name on it.

The owner of the bedroom was Chiaki Kasai, the third victim.

Naru wanted hints about the case, not the colour of her duvet so Mai started a search not quite knowing what to look for. A diary would be useful, she decided and looked in all the places she would hide one.

Underneath the mattress were two notebooks with one being better hidden than the other. The harder one to find was labelled as a school book and the pink covered one was titled as being a diary. A school timetable dropped out of the school notebook when she opened it and she found the names of the three suspect teachers on there. She sighed and consoled herself by reading the contents of the two notebooks.

She felt herself being pulled away all of a sudden at the sound of thunder and woke up in her real bed with a start and found it was raining heavily outside her window. A rumble of thunder had woke her up, but that didn't matter. She had managed to do what Naru had told her.

Remembering Yasuhara and Naru with their notebooks, she grabbed one of her own and noted down as much as she could remember before she could fall asleep again and forget everything in the morning.

 

 


	15. Chapter 15

**Some Wonderful Day:**

**Chapter 15:**

Naru was taken by surprise when Mai grinned at him widely the moment he stepped into the classroom. He took that to mean she had good news for him. He had requested her to try to dream about the case two days before for several reasons. He wanted to see if she could, if she would see the future or the past and if she needed to receive training. Information that would help solve the mystery would be a pleasant bonus.

"I had a very useful dream," she announced triumphantly.

"That is good," Naru answered as he sat down in his seat next to her. "Can you remember the details? Remembering is often the harder part."

Mai tapped the flower patterned notebook lying on top of her school books.

"I was worried about that too so I wrote it down. Is it all right to tell you right now?"

The narcissist glanced around the nearly full classroom. The positioning of desks in classrooms was not designed for having private conversations. People might not be listening now, but once they started mentioning the names of teachers, they might start automatically listening in.

"No. We can go to the roof at lunch to talk about it before we meet after school," he said and changed the subject to homework and a kanji character he had been having trouble with.

The possible contents of Mai's dream occupied his mind all morning and she had never been so glad that the lunch break started when it did. He waited outside the classroom whilst Mai told Keiko and Michiru that she wouldn't be joining them.

"Those two were strangely happy about not being invited," Mai commented when she joined him. "They are usually interested in my dreams too."

Naru spared a moment to think about it before his mind moved onto something more important.

"We need to ask the student president for the key next."

Mai was the one to peep into the corresponding third year classroom and ask to talk to the student president. After the message was dispatched Yasuhara came out the classroom.

"Mai-chan, Shibuya-kun, why are you two here?"

"I wish to request the key to the roof," Naru said, foreseeing that Yasuhara wasn't going to give it to him without being annoying.

"I can't give it to you if you are planning on having a romantic rendezvous there with Mai-chan," Yasuhara gasped theatrically. "I'm a responsible student president."

Fortunately for Naru's patience Mai took over and poked Yasuhara in the side.

"Be serious, it's related to the case."

Yasuhara laughed. "Of course it is. I was only joking. One day I will be able to tell a joke that will even make Shibuya-kun crack a smile."

"That is not today," Naru scowled. Sometimes Yasuhara reminded him of the prankster side of his twin which was annoying at the same time as being pleasantly familiar. He had never enjoyed being the target of Gene's practical jokes though.

"You wound my heart," the student president side. "How can someone with such a beautiful face be so cold?"

Mai's quick eyes caught Naru's jaw tightening and she knew if she didn't get the key from Yasuhara soon Naru was going to blow.

"Yasuhara-senpai, the key," she reminded him.

He fished a key ring full of different keys out his pocket and thumbed through all of them until he found a small metal one which he detached from the ring and handed to Mai. Despite himself Naru was impressed with the selection of keys.

"Are those keys all for the school premises?" he queried.

Yasuhara practically glowed at the question.

"This one is for the teachers' office, these ones are for the labs and this one is for the kitchen. I do have quite a collection," he explained. "Even Mai-chan has never asked about them so I'm glad that someone is showing interest."

"Senpai, I didn't ask because I don't want to know how you obtained them."

The teenage psychic sat herself down against the wall that encircled the roof and got out her bento. Naru sat down right next to her, causing Mai to blush as she remembered Gene's words from the park.

"You had better start now so you can finish before lunch ends," Naru said and split the chopsticks that came with his bento in half.

Mai finished chewing a mouthful of rice and pulled out her notebook. When she described the setting of her dream he sounded intrigued and dare she think it, impressed.

"You were able to interact with the surroundings? You were not just observing events?" he asked with a hint of eagerness.

"Yes. I was able to move things as well. Is it important?"

Naru's gaze met her eyes which made her breath hitch. "Not for the moment. Tell me what you found."

"The bad news is that she was being taught by all three of the suspect teachers."

Naru suppressed a groan. For the nth time the case could not make itself simpler for him to solve. He consoled himself by digging into his bento.

"I found two notebooks hidden in her room. One was a regular diary about her family and what she did with friends and there was nothing out of the ordinary. The other notebook was much different. The first half of it was blank and I nearly put it down until I spotted writing."

The narcissist understood the significance of having blank pages at the start of the notebook. It could make people think it was empty and not bother to go through the rest of it.

"Most of it was about the things she hated in life and later parts were about her being able to bend spoons and PK."

The mention of PK caused Naru to stop eating and pay very close attention.

"That is interesting," he commented. "Was there anything else?"

"She was meeting with a teacher after school to help her develop it."

"Was their name mentioned?" he asked hopefully.

"No, it was written as Sensei K," Mai sighed. "The teacher had taken her aside after catching her bending spoons and gave her something that was supposed to help her become more powerful. It looks like it sent her mad instead. Her handwriting got really wild and the words didn't make sense in the final entry."

As far as Naru understood, in Asian countries people embroiled in rumours became Student K or Sensei K. It seemed like Kasai had followed that convention, making it almost impossible to work out who the teacher was.

"Mai, you did well," he said with a smile.

Mai's response was to blush and Naru felt a weird feeling when she saw the red colour develop in her cheeks. Did that mean that he enjoyed making her blush? He wasn't sure what it meant.

"Did the information help at all?" she asked curiously.

"It has helped a little, there is still a lot that needs to be discovered. We can talk about it at the meeting after school."

They spent the rest of the lunch break eating in silence. Mai was still wondering if Gene was right about her liking Naru and the scientist was torn between wondering about the case and about Mai.

* * *

The monk had clearly been in contact with Yasuhara because he started teasing them the moment they walked into the music room after school.

"How was your rooftop date?"

"Don't you have better things to do than to interfere in the love life of a pair of teenagers?" Ayako interrupted.

For once Naru was grateful for Ayako's constant tête-a-tête with the monk. She had saved him from answering the question.

"Do you want to hear about what we have found out or not?" he grumbled.

Bou-san sat down on his desk and folded his arms. "Yasuhara told us what he found out and we heard that you had a dream related to the case? Was it okay? It wasn't unpleasant, was it? It's likely that the missing people are dead."

Mai realised that he had been worried about her witnessing or experiencing a bloody death and she felt a burst of happiness despite the circumstances. Since her parents' deaths she hadn't really had an adult in her life that cared about her apart from the teacher that had taken her in.

"No. It wasn't a dream like that."

The monk reached out and ruffled her hair. "That's a relief. Some people with your ability end up seeing gory things and go mad. I didn't want that to happen to you."

The narcissist didn't interrupt until Bou-san had finished and then launched into a summary of Mai's dream. She admired how precisely and accurate his recital of it was. She had experienced trouble explaining it to him.

"So Sensei K was helping Kasai-san develop her PK, but she ended up going mad?" Bou-san frowned. "Some teacher that person is."

"Didn't Masako Hara-san start acting strangely too and develop abilities?" Michiru reminded them.

Naru had noticed that similarity before. "Yes. We don't know if John Brown-san exhibited similar behaviour, but for the moment let us assume he did. What does that mean?"

Mai put everything together. "Sensei K took an interest in students that had abilities and supposedly helped them develop it and it affected their sanity instead."

"Did Sensei K kill them to cover it up?" Keiko asked.

"It's highly likely," the narcissist acknowledged.

Bou-san shook his head in regret. "How can someone in a position of trust do that to a student?"

"They're still teaching here too," the school doctor added.

Naru regarded Sensei K's actions the same as the monk did. A teenager in an Asian country that had no idea about what their abilities were would gratefully accept help from someone who claimed to know how to help them control and develop it. For the teacher to abuse that trust and kill them to cover up their mistakes was barbaric. He knew he was fortunate that he and Gene had been adopted by the right people.

"What can we do next?" Bou-san enquired. "Do you have any ideas, Naru-chan? You're really the boss here."

Usually a comment like that would have garnered a smirk from Naru, but he remained serious.

"I do have a suggestion that will probably work. However no one is going to like it."

"Why not?" Ayako demanded. "You don't know us well enough to know that for definite."

Naru ignored her. She would see that he was right about not telling them when explained the idea. "Before we implement it, I want to check out the old school house again for any further clues. My plan is a last resort."

Mai was curious about why Naru was keeping his idea quiet, it wasn't like him not to demonstrate his intelligence. She could tell everyone else was curious too. In the end it was the monk that couldn't resist the urge to ask.

"You can tell us what it is first."

"Use Mai as bait," was the terse reply.

The psychic froze in fright. "W-What?"

Naru avoided looking at her. "Mai has abilities, Sensei K will be sure to take an interest in her. We will find out who it is if we use that."

There was no immediate backlash as everyone was unable to speak out of shock.

"I said it was a last resort," Naru snapped before he could be called heartless. "I don't want to put Mai in danger either."

Mai was the first to speak up. "If we do have to use that plan, will you promise to protect me?"

Naru's eyes softened. "Yes, I will."

 

 


End file.
